Chapter Four / 15 : 30 / Arlecchino

As tension filled the air, Marie asked, “—By enemy, you mean an assassin from Arsenal?”

“No. If it were mere riffraff like that, there would not be any problem at all—it appears, however, that a bungling younger sister of mine has sniffed us out.”

“! Your younger sister? Then that means...”

Marie trailed off, the hairs on her body standing on ends.

RyuZU nodded. “Yes. —She’s one of the Initial-Y Series.”

Upon RyuZU’s confirmation, Vermouth also shuddered once over.

Sure, I’d seen this coming to some extent when I found out from a reliable source that Arsenal had gotten its hands on an Initial-Y...

...But still, what’s up with this timing?

What merit is there to attack us right now, at this time? —There is none. In fact, it’d be just what Market and Restaurant want as they try to find an opening.

Or is that precisely Arsenal’s aim—

No, now’s not the time to think about this. We have to deal with the current situation first.

RyuZU dispatched one of her black scythes and cut the string that had been holding the futon together wrapped around Marie.

“Mistress Marie, I request that you finish AnchoR’s repairs as swiftly as possible. This younger sister of mine may be foolish, prideful, narrow-minded, and mediocre, but she is a threat when it comes to combat strength.”

“—Got it. Leave it to me.”

“Thank you, I will— Now then.”

Upon saying that, RyuZU turned around and walked towards the window, whereupon she stepped onto the sill, then leapt out into the air.

She flew across the street before silently landing on the rooftop of a building on the other side.

Vermouth pulled out an automatic rifle that he had hidden in the wagon, then likewise followed after RyuZU with a bit of a late start.

When he landed on the opposing rooftop, however, there was a loud thud.

“—S’up. I’ll be backing you up a little. I wouldn’t be doing anything useful if I stayed back there anyway.”

“I do not recommend it, but do as you please,” RyuZU replied curtly, without turning to look at him. Her eyes were focused on a certain automaton that was standing on top of a water tank looking down at them.

It was an automaton in the form of a teenage girl dressed in a punk lolita-style dress.

“Fufu— It has been a while hasn’t it, Elder Sister?” the girl said with a smile.

RyuZU called out the girl’s name as she continued to stare at her coldly.

“TemP— Yes, it has been a while, indeed. In fact, I would have preferred not to see you again, but alas.”

“Fufuh, why are you being so—cold!”

As she said the last word, TemP leapt into the air.

—She’s already going in!

Putting himself on red alert, Vermouth tried to make an evasive maneuver— However.

“Ah, cra— Kyaaaaaaah—!”

...It wasn’t even necessary; TemP simply fell down.

It appeared that she had misjudged the distance between them when she had jumped, for she had flown right over their heads before crashing into the street behind them.

“...Hah?”

Vermouth was left dumbstruck for an instant, but quickly turned around to check on her.

Looking down at the street below—he saw TemP buried headfirst in the asphalt.

......What? Did she somehow fail to even stay upright before landing?

Vermouth asked dumbfoundedly, “Oy, Miss Dolly... What’s up with this girl?”

“I hate to admit it—but that is my younger sister. Though as you can see, she is a defective piece of junk.”

“Defective? This is way past that, oy.”

Nowadays, even the most antiquated military automata wouldn’t miscalculate the distance they have to leap. Failing to stay upright while leaping was even more unthinkable.

As he watched on in disbelief, TemP used her arms and feet to push her head out of the asphalt. She then looked up at them with an embarrassed face.

Despite having crashed into the road headfirst at quite a high velocity, she didn’t take any damage, as far as I can see. I suppose you could say that sturdiness of hers is a fearsome functionality, but...

TemP rubbed her face with her hands, then threw her chest out and said, “Fu..... Fufufu! It has been a while, hasn’t it! Elder Sister!”

“......Oy, looks like that useless girl is now trying to pretend that none of that just happened. Can she really be an Initial-Y?” Vermouth asked.

“Regrettably.” RyuZU nodded. “If she simply operated on her standard output, she would have been just fine... It is because she forces herself to run on max output unnecessarily that she embarrasses herself like this. If only she would just learn her place...”

RyuZU sighed. She then looked down onto the street from the edge of the rooftop, inquiring, “—TemP, why are you here?”

“My, am I not free to go wherever I want?”

“That is not the point—you should have been destroyed by me. Two hundred years ago, without a single doubt.”

“Yes, that is right. You did me the favor of destroying me, as I was what you called a ‘defective product,’ didn’t you, Elder Sister? However, I have since been repaired, courtesy of my current master. See for yourself.”

TemP curled her lips as she spread out both hands, assuming a triumphant pose.

Immediately after,

A truck crashed violently into her as she was standing in the middle of the road with a smug look on her face.

“—”

“......”

The truck that had hit TemP toppled sideways from the impact and crashed into the building next to their hotel. Caught between the building and the truck, TemP was obscured from their sight.

Flabbergasted, Vermouth turned to look at RyuZU and asked, after struggling to get the words out for a while, “......I’m gonna ask again, just to be sure. Is that really an Initial-Y? I feel like even I can win against her.”

Her altitude control mechanism was so crude that she screwed up even simple jumps.

Her detection ability was so poor that she couldn’t even sense the truck coming from behind her at that slow speed.

Forget comparing it to a military automaton, it was junk even compared to consumer automata for home use.

With this level of functionality, effective combat maneuvers are a pie in the sky for her. She might be a little sturdier than most automata, sure, but she might as well be a sitting duck—even with the artificial body I’m in, I can still overpower her.

However.

“...Right, well, why don’t you check to see what happened to the truck that hit TemP, then try saying the same thing?” RyuZU said, pointing at the site of the accident.

Vermouth looked where she was pointing as suggested, upon which the sight of the truck crushed up, covered in debris from the building was—

Not there.

“gh—?!”

Well, it was there, actually.

He found the remains of what had been the truck flattened against the building’s wall.

However, it was clearly missing some parts. Glittering particles of some sort were scattering about from the truck’s remains, and there were idiosyncratic traces of destruction via crystallization—

That, that’s the telltale sign of a shot from—

“A resonance canon...?!”

When did she fire? —Vermouth was about to ask, but then stopped himself.

No, nothing was fired. I saw the moment when the truck crashed into her with my own eyes.

So given that the truck that crashed into her was destroyed by resonance when she was in a completely defenseless state—

“She’s got a contact-based resonance mechanism... and an auto-counter one at that?”

“Yes.”

“I see... she’s finally starting to feel like an Initial-Y to me,” Vermouth muttered in a hoarse voice as he “broke out in a cold sweat”—or felt like he did, anyway, despite being a cyborg.

He shuddered as fear penetrated his bones.

In other words, neither bullets nor blades will work on her. What’s more, if you try to approach her carelessly, then the second she touches you, you’ll be caught in a resonance reaction and annihilated.

—So that’s what a walking WMD looks like, huh.

Her functionality is so ridiculous that the crudeness of her movement mechanisms doesn’t even matter.

...Brushing aside the debris, TemP showed herself once again.

Her clothes were all ragged, but as expected, her unit itself looked completely undamaged.

Her face was flushed bright red from either anger or embarrassment or perhaps both.

“—AAAAaaargh!! What is it with this city, I mean, really?! Not only is it dirty and stinky, but I just can’t catch a break here—it’s the worst, I tell you! The worst!”

“She’s lashing out now? Ugh,” Vermouth groaned inadvertently.

It appeared that TemP had a bone to pick with that comment, for she looked up and glared at Vermouth.

At the same time, she stomped the heel of one of her high-laced boots against the ground.

—That instant.

Vermouth leapt into the air, his instincts jolting him into action.

Not a second later, the edge of the rooftop where Vermouth and RyuZU had been standing was smashed into pieces by fine particles.

“—Fuckin’ A!”

He hadn’t been sure or anything.

He simply felt that he had been attacked. And indeed he had, despite not coming into direct contact with her. TemP had probably attacked him by emitting a resonance wave from where she was standing.

To brace for impact, he adjusted his posture in midair so that he would land on all fours.

Upon landing, he looked to his side and saw RyuZU right as she landed elegantly herself with a nonchalant expression.

“Oy, you shitty doll!!” Vermouth shouted angrily. “You didn’t say anything about indirect resonance being possible, you jackass! I almost died just now from a teenage girl lashing out, you know?!”

“You need not worry; as you can see, her resonance crusher does not have much range or speed to boast of. Even if you took a direct hit, only your legs would be annihilated at most.”

“If my legs were gone, then the next attack would kill me as I lay helpless on the ground, asshole!”

While cursing at RyuZU, Vermouth glared at TemP.

—The doll isn’t wrong, though.

The attack just now had enough lag between the time she launched it and the time it reached her target that it can be easily evaded.

In other words, it’s not much of a threat.

Of course, it’s not so weak either that you can just ignore it, but—

RyuZU turned to face TemP and said, “...It is inexplicable, but it does appear that you have been successfully repaired.”

“Hmph! But of course. Unlike your little boyfriend, my master is the greatest clocksmith on the planet. Well, I guess at least you’re both on the same level.”

“—Allow me to correct myself. It seems that you have not been fully repaired after all. To call someone besides Master Naoto the greatest clocksmith—utter nonsense.”

“You sure do speak highly of him even though his incompetence is such that he can’t even repair AnchoR.”

Upon those scoffing words, RyuZU silently took up a battle stance.

“Oh—? Is something the matter? Are you mad ’cause I hit the nail on the heaaad?”

“No? But I do find your baseless comments very much aggravating. If you intend to continue with your ill-advised remarks, though, then I will have no choice but to make you shut up. Yes—by force, that is.”

“My, you’re just hooorrible. What do you think you’re saying to your cute little sister. I’m hurt, you know.”

“It appears there is a misunderstanding, so let me clear things up with you, TemP—I do love you as your elder sister, you know.”

“Hah—?” TemP uttered, dumbfounded.

RyuZU’s expression looked completely serious, but her topaz eyes had a threatening glint.

“—Which is all the more reason why there are some things I cannot allow you to do. If you still have not learned your lesson after being broken once, then you should just perish here. I will kindly put you out of your misery, as a friend, and as your elder sister.”

Right then, RyuZU instantaneously vanished.

“gh—”

Piercing through the air, a giant piece of debris flew straight at TemP.

—It appeared that RyuZU had thrown a huge piece of debris by deftly hooking it with her scythe, then swinging.

It was just debris, but that said, it would more than likely succeed in crushing typical automata.

“This is nothing... ngh!” TemP yelled, her breath growing rough.

Her resonance circuits activated.

The instant the sturdy, heavy debris touched TemP, it broke apart like an ocean wave against a cliff.

“You’re always, always like, so condescending—that’s why I hate you!”

TemP seemed to have lost her temper as she pumped her arms in frustration.

—Immediately after, the air resonated, tearing apart.

“!”

Vermouth thought as he barely escaped by a hair’s breadth:

—What does that doll RyuZU plan to accomplish with that?

More debris was flung TemP’s way as she was becoming furious.

Along with the cracking sound of resonance, they all crumbled into dust. TemP could easily neutralize projectiles with this amount of mass all day long.

...But can those debris even be considered an attack in the first place?

If the enemy was just a lightly armored automaton then you might be able to make an argument for it, but in a battle between two Initial-Y?

“Cursed little... You truly are so annoying!”

TemP activated her resonance again.

The debris exploded upon impact.

There was an explosion of both light and wind from multiple resonance reactions. The dust that the debris had crumbled into and the resonant particles blasted against TemP’s skin and clothes.

But before TemP could even think about how annoying that was, RyuZU dashed through the cloud of dust.

When she appeared again—she had a car hooked to her black scythes, which she swung vigorously to launch the it at TemP’s head from above!

“...Geh.”

As a thunderous roar broke out, resonant particles scattered everywhere.

For a single moment, Vermouth couldn’t see anything.

Sensing danger, Vermouth took a great leap backwards. Immediately after, the spot he had been standing on crumbled into pieces from resonance.

Looking back up, he saw that RyuZU had apparently managed to escape under the cover of the explosion too.

After regaining some distance from TemP, RyuZU set about flinging everything in her vicinity at her once again.

TemP yelled out in frustration, “I swear! Would you put an end to this alrea... ngh!!”

Vermouth thought, ...You can’t really call something like this a threat, after all.

It’s true that the power of resonance reactions is terrifying. It’s been fine so far since I’ve been able to dodge them, but one direct hit and half my body would crumble away.

In the first place, the role that resonance cannons typically occupy as a tool of war is as the fixed heavyweight main cannon of a dreadnought-class weapon or a fort.

To make it into a size that’s personally portable is already absurd—well, AnchoR also has something like that, but—implementing rapid-fire capabilities into one on top of that is just silly, as the unavoidable tradeoff in the range and the area of effect of the cannon just wouldn’t be worth it.

Furthermore, this offensive power of TemP also functions as a defensive one.

If simply touching her will destroy you, then you can’t parry her attacks or restrain her in any way, either.

That’s probably why RyuZU is using stuff like debris and car wheels to attack instead of her own scythes.

—However.

“And a little jump to the right—”

As Vermouth continued evading TemP’s attacks, he brandished his gun.

As he confirmed the road to his left rupturing with the corner of his eye, he pulled the trigger and fired a series of bullets at TemP.

“That’s simply futile!” TemP yelled. Like she said, the bullets appeared to crumble the moment they touched her.

Vermouth thought, ...This is it?

Yes, this ability of hers that serves as both an offensive and defensive tool is a stickler. If her mission was something like raiding an enemy base, then she could probably carry it out with ease.

But there are too many required preparatory actions, and they’re all too blatant as well. To the eyes of those used to battle, it’s no different from her kindly announcing where she’ll strike next beforehand.

Not only that, she’s playing RyuZU’s game of a long-distance fight completely needlessly. She might be a bit clumsy with her movements, but even so, things would be quite different if she simply let her natural capabilities as an Initial-Y do the talking. If she darted about at high speed, causing resonance reactions instantaneously through direct contact instead, her attacks would be far more threatening.

It doesn’t look like there’s any reason why she can’t do that either—so basically, she simply hasn’t thought of it?

—In short, for whatever reason, this automaton called TemP isn’t putting her incredible specs to use at all.

She’s simply rampaging around, fighting without any thought. You can’t call something like this combat. It’s as if she’s completely missing any kind of combat algorithms. That’s how bad it is.

—This is it? This is all an automaton of the Initial-Y Series is capable of?

Having faced off against AnchoR before, Vermouth thought, There’s no way that can be true. As much of a clown show as she’s been putting on up to now, there’s no way that the fight will end like this if she’s an Initial-Y...!

After annihilating a piece of debris for the nth time, TemP yelled as she moved, “Argh— God! You’re simply unbearable!!”

After finally withdrawing backwards with a leap herself, she glared at RyuZU and said, “—I’m going to get serious now.”

She sounded like a child making excuses after losing in a game.

Normally, such words would be a mere bluff—nothing to take seriously at all.

However.

“—TemP, if you intend to activate your inherent ability to attack me, then I can only assume that you have not been repaired in any way whatsoever—”

RyuZU stopped moving.

She gazed at TemP with an expression as impenetrable as a Noh mask before continuing, “I must destroy you. This time, I will turn every last bit of you into scrap metal until you become entirely unrecognizable, such that any kind of repair or restoration is impossible.”

Vermouth instinctively drew back.

He’d been through all kinds of hell to make it here today. He’d had so many people try to kill him that at this point he could sniff out murderous intent from a mile away, and he could even sense when he’s being targeted by cold, emotionless unmanned weapons. He’d even somehow withstood the violent terror that permeated his entire being when AnchoR had targeted him back when she still had her mask on.

But right now, he felt a much greater threat coming from RyuZU than all of that.

He somehow felt goosebumps all over his skin and his throat dry up, when it should be impossible for his artificial skin and “throat”, that was really just a filter, to recreate those sensations.

Yet, the one who was being directly threatened herself simply sneered, “Oh my? Do you really think, Elder Sister, that you can oppose me in any way once I have activated Moon Phase?”

“It does not matter,” RyuZU said in a chillingly calm voice.

Vermouth recalled what RyuZU had said herself several days ago.

—That there isn’t anyone among her sisters that she could beat in a head-on fight.

I have no idea what the “Moon Phase” ability that TemP mentioned is like—though I can guess that it’s her inherent ability. Whatever it is, though, RyuZU’s only chance to win should be to immediately activate Mute Scream and slay TemP before she can generate more resonance particles, yet—

As she continued to exude an aura of deathly cold, RyuZU turned to look at Vermouth and said, “—You would do well to run away now, you know? Do not misunderstand me, though. If you want to be annihilated, then go ahead and stay. I would be quite happy, as it would be very ecological to recycle a piece of trash back into the planet, but...”

“...I have no problem with leaving, but can you win against her?”

“That is a defective product. At this point, I cannot put off dealing with it any longer.”

After replying with what wasn’t really an answer, RyuZU turned her gaze back onto TemP.

“In any case, we are about to enter ‘Y’’s domain now—which is not somewhere that you belong. If you want to stay anyway understanding that, then I will not stop you.”

“Well that sure sounds scary... Roger, guess I’ll be taking my leave now, then. There’s a little something that I want to check up on anyway—”

After giving RyuZU a nod—Vermouth kept his eyes focused on the two of them as he cautiously withdrew from the area.

It appeared that TemP didn’t care about a measly cyborg soldier at this point, for she didn’t make any comment about Vermouth escaping.

—And so.

Only RyuZU and TemP remained.

The First and Third of the Initial-Y Series.

The two automata that transcended common sense simply faced each other off, exchanging hostile glares.

TemP sneered scoffingly, then said, “Definition Proclamation—”

●

“—Count to four as you breathe in... And three as you breathe out—”

With tools in hand, Marie was repeating some breathing exercises in the brightly lit room.

Before her was AnchoR, with her limbs removed and her torso opened up, hanging from a hanger.

What she was trying to get at was that sensation of peeking at the universe that was hidden behind the everyday reality as she usually perceived it.

What she was trying to reach was the realm that the founding clocksmith of this planet, “Y,” had reached.

“Count to three as you breathe in, two as you breathe out—”

With a calm mind, she thought,

—I’m a girl who refuses to believe that anything’s impossible.

Refuses? That isn’t right— Correction, it’s an escape. A pathetic defense. It’s nothing but the manifestation of my lack of self-confidence. I feel the need to say it, because I’m scared that my spirit will crumble if I don’t.

However, I won’t crumble anymore.

Well actually, I’ve already crumbled. My spirit has been pulverized into dust—even so, I was able to move forward.

That fact allowed Marie to reach a new personal height.

She swore:

—I’m the girl who’ll prove that everything’s possible.

“Count to two as you breathe in, one as you—”

—She closed her eyes and focused until she didn’t hear anything anymore. Her consciousness became clear, all the noise disappearing.

Then... having become fully immersed in her own mind, she envisioned opening her eyes and seeing a different world.

That very moment— Time stopped.

While feeling the constant fluctuations of the world come to a standstill, Marie began to work furiously.

As she felt her consciousness expand infinitely to the point of omnipotence, she grasped AnchoR’s structure in its entirety—the gears, cylinders, springs, screws, wires, and frame that were like a miniature world of their own.

The plan was simple.

She would temporarily remove AnchoR’s main cylinder and Perpetual Gear and transplant a new main frame.

On top of that, she would then reform her nerve circuit that was made of 15,535,980,945 nerve wires.

She would connect the new sensory organs to her limbs, and tune her new power management algorithm based on her new power specs.

And then—the automaton called AnchoR would finally be restored.

She’d ignore the standard procedure for such work, as the massive amounts of checks and tests would be too time-consuming.

After all, she’d already finished all the tests—in simulations with her accelerated mind.

—The only thing left to do now is to execute.

Then, in her state of unlimited omnipotence, Marie stared in wonder at the replacement main frame.

—This main frame is the real deal.

I have no idea what kind of theory or technology he used to make this, but—that guy, that old man, seriously grasped AnchoR’s structure and output flawlessly without even disassembling her first for analysis.

Thanks to that, Marie’s work proceeded smoothly, so smoothly that it felt eerie.

She simply connected the parts together as specified. Just by doing that, everything began to run without a hitch.

The unforgiving reality of clockwork engineering was that even for something as relatively simple as a mechanical clock, a manufacturing imperfection on the scale of nanometers would be enough to throw off the whole mechanism. Naturally, the margin of error was even more merciless for the pinnacle of clockwork that were automata, with their transcendental gears that can work together to mimic the human body, and that were a mini cosmos in and of themselves—for there to be no malfunctions on the first try in assembling one was unheard of, even for standardized models.

—It’s almost as if I made it myself, Marie thought.

What kind of parts I would use, what kind of method I would choose to recreate this mechanism... It’s clear from the design that the old man understands something that only I should know—he knows how I like to work, and he made this main frame to fit my work flow. It’s honestly disgusting how good a job he did at that.

To Marie, it felt like something her future self of maybe a few years, but maybe even decades, had given her past self to work with—that was how perfectly it was made for her.

But of course, that was impossible.

This main frame was made by that old man.

Giovanni Artigiano—“Maestro Finite.”

I’ll admit it.

“There’s no point in me trying to mimic his work, or to learn how he does what he does—I have to admit, I can’t make something like this as I am right now.”

That truth felt just a bit vexing, but at the same time, it gave Marie a sense of pride that she could discern it.

I can see the boundary between what’s possible and what’s impossible for me right now. There’s still a realm out of my reach in this universe—but one that a man that came before me has reached.

I can chase after that as a goal—which surely counts as a blessing.

—Just then.

“What...?”

Her infinitely expanded consciousness had sensed danger.

Not from inside the workshop, though, but what was happening outside her room. Multiple threats were looming—

Enemies are here.

In her current expanded state of mind, the hotel itself felt like an extension of her own body. Even shut inside this workshop, she’d be able to tell if someone was approaching her—However, even if that weren’t the case, she’d probably have realized this anyway, considering the sound of an explosion downstairs and loud footsteps mixed in with gunshots, though she didn’t know who had sent them.

Marie became anxious.

Right now, the only ones in the hotel room were AnchoR, who couldn’t move, and herself.

Neither Naoto, nor RyuZU, nor Vermouth—nor Halter, though she wasn’t counting him, were here with her.

That isn’t to say that Marie was powerless by herself. If she could set things up beforehand, she’d be able to handle one or two soldiers with guns on her own just fine. Even three would be doable, though it’d be trickier.

But any more than that, and it’s hard to say.

Though she might be more individually skilled than any one of them, it was more than likely that the difference in numbers and uncertain factors would overwhelm her.

—Mo... ther?

“gh!”

She heard AnchoR’s voice somehow, when it shouldn’t have been possible. It felt as though it had been transmitted to her mind through her fingers that were touching AnchoR.

She was still in the middle of her work. She hadn’t wound AnchoR’s spring yet, or connected her artificial vocal cords.

Despite that, AnchoR was trying to reboot herself on her own. The mechanisms that had been connected so far creaked as they slowly began to turn. At the same time, the light of consciousness reappeared in AnchoR’s red pupils. She looked at Marie.

—It’s the enemy, right?

“Stop it, AnchoR.”

—But I have to fight. I’ll protect you, Mother— AnchoR tried to say aloud, but Marie covered her mouth.

“You don’t need to worry,” Marie asserted in a kind voice. “Mother’ll protect you, AnchoR, so just relax, close your eyes, and rest for now— Heheh.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at herself a bit.

Words that she would never have said not so long ago had just come naturally out of her mouth.

Mother’ll protect you? Good one—considering her abilities, such words are downright silly. Or they would be in normal circumstances, anyway.

—But right now, the only one who can protect this child is me.

This child, who fought until she was completely beat up to protect us.

I won’t let anyone interfere at a critical time like this, when I’m mending her damages from that battle and restoring new life into her.

“Hah— Can’t really treat Naoto like an automaton-loving pervert anymore, can I.”

She smiled.

Right after— She sensed the enemy breach the floor that she was on.

—She retracted her mind.

She felt her expanded awareness contract back to normal, along with her sense of time. She had no time to wait for her body to adjust to the difference in sensations right now though, as she equipped herself with her coil spear and toolbelt.

She couldn’t let them set foot in this room. This workshop was a cleanroom. Should dust become airborne from its door being blown up, AnchoR’s mechanisms might be irreversibly damaged.

——

She couldn’t hear AnchoR’s voice anymore, having returned to a regular state of mind. She didn’t need to to tell that AnchoR was worried for her from the look in her red eyes though, so she smiled at AnchoR before turning around.

—In the worst case, I should be able to cause the entire building to collapse if I fire all the plasma-based explosives loaded in my coil spear at its support beams.

This workshop will serve as a shelter of sorts in that case as well. Dust would still get in, admittedly, but—

“Well, knowing Naoto, he’ll probably get us out of the wreckage one way or another, even if he has to excavate the entire thing.”

As she reassured herself with her rather twisted faith in the boy, Marie stepped outside the room.

Upon which.

“—Lower your weapon and get on the floor. I don’t want to have to blow out your precious brain.”

She found two lightly armored automata and three cyborg soldiers in position waiting for her. Marie listened to their warning in blank amazement.

She muttered without thinking, “—Are you screwing with me?”

“I won’t say this a third time. Lower your weapon and get on the floor. I could always shoot out your legs and force you to get down if you’d prefer it that way, you know?”

“I see... so you are serious.”

To think that someone would send a mech unit of military automata and cyborg soldiers just to capture me, when my body is fully human and vulnerable...

Marie dropped her coil spear onto the floor, her hands trembling.

“Keh.”

A snigger escaped her.

...No, stop it, Marie... You can’t laugh yet... Bear with it! But good lord, this is just hilarious!

“Fu, fuheh... Keheheh...”

I can’t help it, though. How can anyone not laugh at how ridiculous this is?

—I’ve gotta apologize to Dr. Konrad.

It looks like the emergency tip he gave me before was true after all.

Though at the time, I responded by saying, “No way,” while chortling...

It appeared that the cyborg soldiers considered her harmless now without her coil spear, as they began to approach her.

If she were to be honest, even now, she still couldn’t believe it.

—Wow.

It looks like these guys seriously think.

That they can do anything to me with their mechanical bodies.

That I’m not a threat anymore without my coil spear when I still have a tool in my other hand.

—When I’m a Meister—!

One of the cyborg soldiers reached out his hand towards Marie.

That instant—Marie gave herself to her instincts.

She thrust the tip of the nano screw driver in her hand, which was thinner than a needle tip, into the cyborg’s arm, like a nurse might administer an injection.

It didn’t penetrate deeply at all—just a mere centimeter.

But just like that, the soldier’s artificial body malfunctioned and fell to the floor limply.

“—gh?!”

Marie wouldn’t give him the time to comprehend what had happened with his lacking intellect.

It felt to her almost as if the world had been submerged under a sea of tar.

As her awareness expanded widely, deeply, and sharply and her perception was honed, Marie made her move.

She kicked up the coil spear by her feet, swimming through the viscous spacetime she was in.

—She could see everything.

She saw everything in the hallway, the dumb faces of the clowns pointing guns at her, the parts that made up their facial mechanisms, the manufacturers of those parts, the model numbers, even their respective release dates—everything.

The only things she couldn’t see were what were behind the stupid faces of the soldiers—their brains. Well, if they really had any in there, anyway.

Marie grabbed hold of her coil spear as it flew up, then changed it into its blade form and dashed.

Before the other two cyborgs could even process what had just happened, Marie closed in on the two CY-06 lightly armored automata in the back, also known as the “Shueng Infernal.”

—Automata were straightforward.

“The enemy suddenly moved, so I should shoot”—that was how simple their algorithms were. They wouldn’t be distracted by thoughts like, “How?” at seeing one of their allies taken down in a flash by a single girl.

—Which was why predicting and evading their attacks wouldn’t be difficult either.

CY-06 Zhuyan—a lightly armored automaton used by the Chinese military. The vulnerability of its over-simplistic close-quarter combat algorithm had proven to be a problem time and time again. Raising its firepower by making both its arms into guns was good and all, but that also made it difficult for the model to deal with an enemy once that enemy was right in front of it.

Marie swung her arms from one side to the other, slashing one of the Zhuyans with her ultrasonic blade with perfect precision. She wove through the gap in its plating, and effortlessly severed the neck that was painted white.

She then moved onto the next target to on her priority list, which was—not the other Zhuyan, but rather—

“gh— Y, You little...!”

I don’t know what’s going on, but she’s attacked us somehow—the cyborg soldier thought as he pointed his gun at her. Though it was quite late, it was still a pretty good deduction for a clown like himself.

But it was still late. Too late.

His artificial body used the Hunan Motors’s “Jiang Shi” series as a base, but was illegally modified with high-end parts from the “Gorsirsa” series.

The intent behind its design was probably to pair the high output of the Gosirsa with the light Jiang Shi without adding too much weight—but whoever designed it is a total third-rate.

Yes, you’ll get greater output this way, but you can’t just connect nerve wires that are inconsistent with each other as-is, or you’ll get this 0.425 second lag between the mind ordering the finger to pull the trigger to the finger actually pulling it—tuning the wires to make them consistent with each other is supposed to be where you show off your skills as a clocksmith, yet he simply soldered them like a caveman.

0.425 seconds?

That’s enough time for me to yawn—

A gunshot rang out.

The remaining Zhuyan shot down the cyborg that had taken aim at Marie.

—Marie needed only half of that 0.425 seconds to thrust a tool and hijack the fire-control system of an armored automaton.

Right after that, the last remaining cyborg soldier fired.

With that, the Zhuyan that had been shot through its eye flopped onto the floor.

Looks like this last clown isn’t as dumb as the others... insomuch as he was able to recognize on the spur of the moment that he should take care of the automaton before me.

Marie sighed, “—You know, there’s something I’ve been wondering for a long time now.”

With a jerk of her arm, she switched her coil spear to its rifle form.

However, the last cyborg found himself unable to react as he simply kept his gun pointed at her.

In less than a few seconds, all of his allies had been eliminated. The only one remaining was himself—he couldn’t comprehend the situation he found himself in. Along with that, he might have remembered that killing Marie would mean a mission failure for him.

Fear, confusion, hesitation—his emotions were delaying his decision to shoot or not.

As the enemy was wasting his time, Marie continued with calm and ease, “As far back as I can remember, I’ve been surrounded by nothing but stupidly gifted people. So much so that I got fed up with it, to be quite honest.”

That included the former number one clocksmith in the world, her father.

And the current number one clocksmith in the world, who surpassed him, her older sister.

And Dr. Konrad, whom both of them had once studied under, and Houko, who was practically born to lead, and the Meisters that risked their lives working for Meister Guild.

And of course, Halter, RyuZU, AnchoR—and Naoto, too.

Marie sighed. “So you see, I’ve always felt like I wasn’t good enough, comparing myself to them—and would often get all depressed about it; even so, I would grit my teeth and keep fighting on every time.”

Of course, she knew that she was privileged.

She came from a splendid background and was naturally gifted, had the best family and teachers one could ask for, as well as friends and colleagues that were both conscientious and capable.

She’d been generously given such blessings, so it was only natural that she achieved excellent results herself—if she didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to look at everyone who supported her in the eye.

So she very much understood that not everyone could do the same things she could.

Expecting that from others would be nothing but arrogance. It would be disrespecting the worth of all the things she had been blessed with.

...But.

But, even so—!

Marie glared at the cyborg soldier with eyes practically on the verge of tears.

“You know... I’ve always seen myself as the bottom of the barrel, a hopeless idiot. But could it be... that the vast majority of people are far below me, even? For real?”

Marie was shocked.

She felt as if the ground she had been standing on had suddenly liquified.

“And just when—I was finally coming around to accepting that I might be a genius myself.” She paused before bursting out angrily, “But if you’re all so stupid—then how am I supposed to believe that I’m special by just being smarter than you!”

As her emerald eyes turned ablaze, Marie dashed.

The enemy fired his gun.

But it was too late.

A shot aiming at her foot was fired with that gun, that artificial body, that modified arm with that much power—given those conditions, Marie could foresee everything, from how much the aim would be off to how far the bullet would travel.

So, she only needed to step forward.

As the bullet flew past her and dug itself into floor behind her, she stomped down on the enemy cyborg’s foot.

Of course, such a stomp wouldn’t do anything to a cyborg—under normal circumstances, anyway.

But in this case, the enemy cyborg had had his right foot’s joint damaged already.

His foot twisted to the side just as a human foot would if its joint was broken. The cyborg, whose enhanced artificial body looked to be over two meters tall, fell down from just having his foot stomped on by a human girl.

And, just as he looked back down at Marie again, his head having jerked upwards for a moment—

“You’ve failed! Repent! It’s a do-over for you—!”

Three 13 mm. armor-piercing rounds burst out of Marie’s coil spear.

The cyborg fell, having had his mainspring and its primary link to the rest of his body shot through.

After confirming that all threats had been neutralized, Marie sighed.

She rested her coil spear onto her shoulder and muttered, “A mech unit of automata and cyborgs, huh... At first I thought that I was being toyed with, but I’m beginning to think that someone actually thought this was a good idea.”

Clocksmiths were, of course, experts in clockwork engineering.

And when it came to Meisters, they were the true elites. Cream of the cream of the crop, if you will.

It was probably easier to become the president of a nation than a Meister.

Whether it was automata or artificial bodies—a Meister would have a rough idea at first glance whether it was a standard or modified model, as well as its capabilities, structure, and vulnerabilities.

Of course, being able to analytically break down an automaton as advanced as the Initial-Y Series at first glance was a different story, but...

Still—sending pieces of clockwork engineering like automata and cyborgs at a Meister was akin to a battalion that had had its full composition leaked to the enemy going for a frontal assault on level ground.

—Marie recalled the pearl of wisdom that Konrad had shared with her once.

“You see, normal humans can’t understand the fact that, to a Meister, both automata and cyborgs might as well be sitting ducks, despite having far more strength than a living human.”

“—Really, I can’t believe that you were right, Dr. Konrad...”

If it were armed flesh and blood soldiers that had come for her, things would have been very different.

She might know a few self-defensive maneuvers, but there was no way she could defend herself indefinitely against professional soldiers alone with just that. They would have swiftly subdued her and that would have been the end of that.

“...I wonder if no one actually realizes why there aren’t any cyborg Meisters running around out there...”

It was true that cyborgs had a much sturdier body than flesh and blood soldiers.

If a Meister transplanted their arms with those of maintenance automata, they would surely be able to do delicate work at a high speed that was unimaginable for typical clocksmiths—however.

Even with modern technology, clockwork engineering had yet to progress to a point as to be able to perfectly replicate the human body. As such, artificial bodies and limbs had all sorts of dangerous flaws that could knock it off the delicate balance it rested on at any time—

The more outstanding a clocksmith one was, the more painfully one understood this fact.

—That no machine can ever be a match for the human arms of someone who has perfected their skills.

“...If he were just a complete simpleton, he would have gotten me. His overthinking was what led to his grand failure. To think that it’s better to be a total idiot than have a half-baked intellect... What a brutal truth.”

Marie nodded to herself solemnly as she etched the lesson deeply into her heart. She then looked up.

“Well, I guess I should be thankful for that. Let’s see... It looks like I can buy some time if I destroy the elevator and the stairs connecting to the lower floors for now.”

As soon as she said that, she gave her coil spear a jerk.

And immediately blasted two plasma rounds at the two elevators and the stairs—

As she confirmed their destruction with her ears and peripheral vision, the one-of-a-kind Meister returned to her workshop with calm and ease.

●

Meanwhile—In the back side of Pandora’s Inn, where there was an unloading area for incoming goods, five men exchanged grim glances at each other.

“Fuck! Those shitheads actually managed to fuck it up!!” one of the men growled agitatedly.

Earlier, there were the sounds of gunshots, explosions, and things collapsing.

That was only to be expected, considering what the mech units that had gone in were equipped with. But even now, after all this time, they still showed no signs of coming back out. Even when the men tried calling them with the pricy wireless pagers they had, they received no response.

It was natural to believe that the entire squad had met their match and been eliminated.

“Impossible, weren’t they only up against a single brat?!”

“They may have had allies lying in ambush. Maybe they hired some guards?”

“It’s possible. The guys at Arsenal may have set up a trap for us.”

The men shared possible explanations with tense voices.

—They were the special forces unit sent by Market and Restaurant.

They were all ex-military and well-trained in small arms, with plenty of live combat experience as well.

Within that unit, the mech squad that had gone in earlier was made up of independent mercenaries that had no ties with Arsenal, and as such were highly treasured by Market and Restaurant. Stuff like assassinations, purges, abductions, and reconnaissance that Market and Restaurant didn’t want other organizations to know about—they were a squad that had taken on dirty work like that.

They had naively thought that, given their abilities, abducting a single teenage girl would be a piece of cake, Meister or not.

However, that wasn’t what ended up happening...

One of the men said in a quiet voice, “So what now? Should we go in by ourselves for a second attempt...?”

“It’s too dangerous. We don’t even know how many enemies there really are.”

“Yeah, but are we just going to retreat without even checking, then? How do you plan to report to the higher-ups?!”

The anxiety in their voices was a sign of the difficult predicament they found themselves in.

It would be dangerous for them to go in now, but it wasn’t like they could just retreat either, given who their clients were. ...It was different now from when they were in the military. If they failed a mission of this level, they could even be deemed useless and be disposed of.

The leader of the men resolved himself, saying as he stood up, “We have no choice... Let’s go.”

Right after that, his head was blown off.

The sound of a high-caliber gunshot boomed. It came from a close distance.

The remaining four men were dumbfounded by the sight of their freshly decapitated leader before immediately preparing themselves to fight back.

However, they were too slow.

By the time they had their rifles ready, a silhouette charged at them from the shadows without a single sound.

With just one pass, two of the men had their necks snapped faster than they could scream.

It was terrifyingly quick work.

“F, Fuckin—”

The remaining two men fired their rifles while cursing—but, by that time, the silhouette had already disappeared from their sight. They couldn’t even catch what he looked like much.

Only—that he was a terribly large man. And probably a cyborg at that—

“Guagh!”

A throaty scream sounded shortly before a heavy body thudded onto the floor.

“Fuck, so that’s where you are!”

The last remaining man turned around in a hurry—and just as he did, his world turned upside down.

He only realized that he had been thrown towards the ground right before his skull was smashed against the ground.

...Silence fell.

Only one man was standing where five armed soldiers had been standing just moments before.

It was the large cyborg man, Halter.

Remaining wary of potential enemies still hiding in the area, he sighed while continuing to clench his fists.

“...Good grief, they may be clueless, but they sure don’t waste any time,” Halter muttered exhaustedly, twisting his neck. “More will probably be here in no time. Damn it, how am I supposed to handle this—”

Just then.

Honk honk!

A car horn rang out. The noise seemed to have a mocking tone to it somehow.

Turning around, Halter found that there was a large truck trying to enter the garage from the hotel’s driveway.

—An ally of the guys I just eliminated?

Halter drew his handgun in a flash and pointed it at the driver’s seat.

But as he was about to pull the trigger,

“—Hey! Stop, stop, don’t shoot me, man.”

The driver, a woman—or rather, Vermouth, said as he lowered the window to show Halter who it was.

As Halter put his gun away with a scowl, Vermouth stuck his torso out from the window and looked around. Upon seeing the five corpses lying on the ground, he asked, “Protecting the Missy in secret? Sounds rough.”

“...Pretty much, yeah. Can’t be helped. My plans have gone pretty far off track, so...”

“Plans, huh...?” Vermouth said as he opened the door and got out of the truck. He stood facing Halter and asked, tilting his head, “Well, I didn’t foresee that an Initial-Y would come to attack us either, but... Still, how were you planning to settle everything anyway, Boss?”

“What do you mean?”

“I was sure that you were working on some sort of compromise that Naoto and Marie could accept... but from the way you’re talking now, it doesn’t seem like it. C’mon, tell me.”

After a moment of silence, Halter replied, “...Regardless of how it happened, we weren’t going to get out of Shangri-La scot-free from the moment we got tied up with Kiu Tai Yu. You get that, right?”

“Well, yeah.” Vermouth nodded.

“But,” Halter said with a shrug, “whether it be Naoto or Marie—do you think that you or I could wheedle either of them into doing what we say?”

Upon those words, Vermouth folded his arms and stared up into space.

After thinking for a good several seconds, he sighed deeply. “...Well, it would certainly be an A1 on a list of the world’s most difficult challenges.”

“Right? If I’m desperate enough to bet on that miniscule chance, then I might as well just try to destroy Shangri-La Grid instead, as that would still have more hope.”

“With your skills, I think you’d actually be able to pull it off, though?”

“Don’t be a dumbass. I’m not the star of an action movie, you know,” Halter snapped with a sigh. “This was my conclusion: Answering Kiu Tai Yu’s demands is impossible. That said, I don’t want to go bang-bang against Arsenal head-on, either. So what should we do? There’s only one answer. Just let those who want to clean up the messes do so.”

“......”

Vermouth sank into silence without breaking eye contact, pondering over what Halter had just said.

Halter continued dispassionately, “Why do the neighboring countries leave Shangri-La Grid to its own devices? It isn’t a question of military power. People like to talk Arsenal up, but in the end, it’s just a single local syndicate. If the neighboring countries got serious, their militaries could crush whatever defense Arsenal puts up within a day.”

—So why was it, then, that they hadn’t done so yet?

That was solely due to the conditions that Kiu Tai Yu had crafted for them to keep things the way they were.

By allowing Shangri-La Grid to exist in its current state, they would gain economic revenue and access to technology, and a secret garden to play with that they wouldn’t otherwise. As these were too valuable for them to simply throw away, they turned a blind eye to the city being a total mess.

“That’s why—we’ll create a situation where the neighboring countries would have to intervene.”

Kiu Tai Yu essentially said this:

—“In the current political climate, we wouldn’t be able to avoid a clamp-down from the international community if we lent a hand to you.”

Great! That’s just what I wanted. Let’s go for much more than a little clamp-down, though... Let’s spray shit everywhere, then call in the fastidious cleaners by yelling, “Hey fuckers, come here and wipe up this smelly ass already!”

“So basically... what you wanted was—”

“Kiu Tai Yu let Naoto into the core tower. That was his biggest mistake. I don’t know exactly just how much trouble Naoto will cause, but I’m sure he’ll do the exact opposite of what Kiu wants, at the very least.”

—And right now, Shangri-La Grid is being monitored by IGMO’s military, because Second Ypsilon escaped here.

If I leak the info after Naoto stirs up trouble, they’ll definitely act.

And once IGMO’s military steps foot into Shangri-La, they won’t have a choice but to force the city to adhere to international law, even if no one actually wants them to.

In short—

“Dismantle the City of Shangri-La through lawful means—so that’s the script you wrote, huh Boss.”

Halter smiled faintly at that. “I’m simply trying to get people to do the jobs they’re supposed to do. See, you’ve gotta learn to go through the proper process for things when you’re an adult.”

“Hahah—you have a pretty funny definition of proper.”

They both chuckled wryly.

However, Halter then dropped his shoulders.

“...Well, that was the plan, anyway.”

“That Initial-Y threw a wrench into things, huh.”

“Yeah. Just like you said, I didn’t foresee them launching an attack on Marie’s group at a time like this.”

Halter sighed, looking thoroughly distressed.

—Considering Kiu Tai Yu’s goals, there’s no benefit to him to attack them right now. If anything, he ought to consider assigning guards to protect them from the other two syndicates himself if he wants his plan to carry out smoothly.

But as a matter of fact, they were attacked. And with RyuZU now gone, the other syndicates have begun to target Marie.

And now that they’ve made their move, neither Market nor Restaurant can afford to pull back.

It’s going to break out into a three-way battle at any second—no, it’s already started, hasn’t it.

Vermouth nodded, then asked, “Well, Kiu probably has his reasons, whatever they may be—so, wut’cha gon’ do?”

“Well, Plan A is out the window now. ...I didn’t want to do it, but I guess it’s Plan B.”

“Plan B?” Vermouth parroted questioningly.

Halter shook his head, “—The play’s already begun—it’s an improv show. We’ll just have to do our best now. We’ve gotta reach the final act immediately and pull in IGMO’s military.”

“What are the specifics?”

“Naoto’s already begun to act. I thought I might have to stay at the core tower and buy him time to do his work in the worst case, but luckily it seems like there’s no need to worry about that. RyuZU’s got her hands full dealing with that Initial-Y too, so we’ll just have to trust Naoto to handle things over there. What’s left, then, is Marie.”

The last remaining key to break out of this predicament—is Marie.

—In that case—what is it that I can do?

Halter declared boldly, his eyes filled with determination, “We’ll protect Marie.”

He paused for a breath.

“Arsenal, Market, and Restaurant—and all the other organizations in Shangri-La Grid are going to target her, I imagine. They may all have different motivations, but that’s what anyone who’s not completely brainless will do. We’re going to eliminate all of them by force and let the princess do as she pleases.”

Vermouth raised his hand, interjecting, “I figure I should let you know that as of right now, that slutty virgin should be nearly done repairing the world’s most terrifying kindergartener, you know? Shouldn’t we leave the task of protecting Marie to her?”

“I know. But AnchoR will probably have to go to help RyuZU out. After all, in a straight-up fight, apparently RyuZU’s the weakest among her sisters. —Though to be honest, I don’t really see how that could be the case.”

“I see...” Vermouth replied, then said, “But say, Boss. Isn’t there a hole in that plan?”

“...”

“Protect the Missy and crush all enemy forces—your logic checks out and it’s easy enough to say, but are you capable of that right now?” Vermouth asked.

To which Halter pressed down on his chest to try to feel his heart—or rather, his mainspring.

He felt the powerful vibrations of a mainspring made to support the assault-type artificial body he was in.

However, the sensation of those vibrations was much weaker than what he was used to from memory.

—Of course it was.

Right now, Halter was using a fifth-gen artificial body that he had procured back in Tokyo.

On the bright side, it was a model still popularly used all over the world. But compared to what Halter had originally been using—a cutting-edge eight-gen model of the Breguet Corporation, it was a total antique.

Whether one’s looking comparing the power output, maximum acceleration, quality of the plating, or scanning system, everything was simply way worse.

Even with his original cutting-edge body, it would have been a tough task for Halter to execute the body-guarding mission that he had just spoken of.

So with his current fifth-gen body—

Halter sighed, then said, “...You’re right. I’ll admit it, I’m taking a gamble on that part.”

No—it isn’t even a gamble, is it.

No matter how well I utilize this antiquated body, and even if I’m blessed with all the luck I could possibly dream of, I still can’t see how I can win. To begin with, the number of things I’m capable of doing alone in combat is limited.

—At most, I’ll probably only be able to take down a single company of troops along with me to hell.

Vermouth looked sad, however, seeing that sigh.

“...Oy oy, Boss... don’t say things that make my dick limp, man. Could it be that I’m actually a bigger man than you down there?”

“What...?”

“How is it even possible to still think like that when you’re next to those two brats all the time?” Vermouth said, smiling wryly. “I mean really, isn’t that where, as a man, you’re supposed to say, ‘Easy peasy’?”

“—”

Hearing those words, Halter felt the tightness around his mouth naturally relax.

He relaxed his posture as his body, which had gotten all anxiously worked up before he realized it, became light again.

Rubbing his buzzed head, he muttered, “...To be honest, I’ve never done it before.”

“Hah? Never done what before?”

“Plan B. Leaving things to chance. Or at least, I’ve never gone into a mission without a real plan.”

“...Hey now Boss, aren’t you blowing yourself up a little too much? There should’ve been plenty of times that you had to deal with the unexpected on the battlefield, y’know?” Vermouth said as he knit his brows, looking suspicious.

However, Halter shrugged. “Of course there were. But the conditions back then and the conditions now are totally different.”

“How so?”

“...See, in the past, a win to me was simply surviving,” Halter said with a pained smile. “If that was the only victory condition, then a little surprise here and there wasn’t much of a big deal. I could just maintain the original plan if I altered it a bit on the spot. ...But see, now...”

Merely surviving is no longer enough for me.

...I have more ties now. There are responsibilities on my shoulders. Troublesome pains in the ass have popped up one after the other in my life, and I can no longer bring myself to throw them all away.

As such, I can no longer play the lone wolf like I did back then.

In other words, yes—I’ve become an adult, unfortunately.

“Well, it can’t be helped,” Halter said has he rubbed his smooth, bald head. “This grand play is one that I started. I can’t go crying to Mommy now.”

“—Well then, in that case, Boss,” Vermouth said, pointing his thumb behind him at the truck he had come in.

Vermouth walked behind the truck and unlocked its hatch. He lifted up the hatch and said, “Mind taking a look at this baby?”

Halter peered past Vermouth’s shoulders at what was inside as he had suggested—upon which his eyes widened.

“Got any recollection of this one?”

“—”

How could he not.

Loaded in the truck were a complete artificial body and a body-switching device.

Halter knew that artificial body very well indeed. Its model number, its specs, everything.

—BCP7-R, the 18th prototype of the Breguet Corporation’s seventh-gen artificial body, Romeo.

Without a doubt, it was the exact one that Halter had personally used before, even. Incredibly enough, even the mold of its face was still just as Halter had set it many years ago.

“This... just where did you find it? Officially it’s something that’s long been disposed of, you know?” Halter asked.

To which Vermouth replied laughingly, “Hehe. The legendary mercenary’s got fans all over the world, y’see... I found this baby in the secret collection of someone living in this city, so I snatched it. It’s all serviced up and ready to rock ’n roll.”

“...You’re saying that there just happens to be such an oddball bastard that lives in this city?” Halter muttered, looking suspicious.

However, Vermouth simply shrugged. “Who knows? The Heavens do seem to smile upon you, after all.”

“The Heavens, huh...”

“Bad luck strikes all the time without warning whether you like it or not, doesn’t it? Last time I checked, there wasn’t a law saying that only good luck has to come with trumpet fanfare.”

“So you nabbed something you happened to find, and that’s all there is to it?”

“I said this to Naoto too, but it’s not like I’ve just been sleeping the whole time. I’m pretty sharp. I figured something like this might end up happening—is basically the gist of it. So, I was working hard to lay some groundwork.”

Vermouth curled his lips, then said, “Is this baby enough for what you’re attempting to do, Boss?”

The 18th prototype of the Breguet Corporation’s seventh-gen artificial body, Romeo.

It was the coming model that easily surpassed the reigning sixth-gen models on the market today.

Not only that, this was one of the last prototypes that had already undergone plenty of iterations.

Maximum output might be another matter, but as far as response time and performance go, it rivaled the eighth-gen model.

And this particular unit was one that was tuned to fit the trial user.

If the one using it was going to be Vainney Halter, it was undoubtedly the absolute best artificial body that one could acquire in this city.

“The strongest mercenary makes his return in one of his old, outdated bodies—and tramples the battlefield. I know it’s cliche, but doesn’t it just get you fired up like nothing else?” Vermouth said, looking like a gleeful little kid whose heart was filled with expectation.

He then asked in a vulnerable voice, seeking approval, “—Did I do a first-rate job this time?”

“For goodness’ sake...”

Halter let out a grand sigh and slumped his shoulders, then chuckled painfully. “Looks like you’ve got one on me, huh... Say, didn’t it cross your mind to do something about your own body before trying to find a new one for me?”

“I’ll wait for things to settle before I switch into a proper body. If that genius slut doesn’t do the tuning for my new body—then the one I’m in right now is far better than anything I can get right now.”

“...Yeah, true that.” Halter nodded.

Compared to a generic military artificial body with higher specs, one that was tuned by Marie, even if its listed specs weren’t quite up to par, was still far more reliable.

Response, performance, accuracy, reliability—all these things which weren’t listed on the spec sheets, but were tied to the user’s capacity, were often what determined the outcome of the closest fights. And if a combined value were to be assigned to those parameters, an artificial body tuned by Marie would have one that was far higher than a generic one.

Vermouth groaned, “Though I’m sure that silly Missy is as oblivious as ever to her own talent.”

“Yeah, most definitely.”

“The crap she spouts, I swear. ‘Anyone could do this much, surely—?’ She’ll say, while managing to tune an artificial body’s settings to limits that far exceed what others would have even considered theoretically possible without even realizing it.”

Halter sighed in sympathy. “...She’s a princess that can put up a fight against an automaton with a human body. Get a clue, man.”

—And so, Halter switched into the seventh-gen body with Vermouth’s help.

The process was nearly fully automated with the body-switching device. After his brain pod had been transplanted, he quietly waited for the seventh-gen body to boot up.

As the mainspring began to turn, his brain was linked to the body’s sensors, and muscle gears throughout the body began to turn as the nerve wires transmitted his brain’s signals.

—He opened his eyes, or rather, visual sensors.

He called out, “Vermouth.”

The sensors hadn’t adjusted to the amount of light yet, so everything was too bright for him to see properly.

Despite that, he could still make out Vermouth staring at him goggle-eyed in total amazement.

“...Boss.”

Just then, the hangar that had been keeping the body suspended released its locks.

Halter shook his newly freed arms and legs a bit, then stood up.

Looking down a little, he saw his mercenary junior looking downward. Instead of trying to force eye contact, Halter simply lightly tapped Vermouth’s trembling shoulders and said,

“Thanks. —I’ll be going now.”

With that, Halter leapt out of the truck.

His large body swelled outward like a samurai dressed for battle, with its plating and the various weapons it was equipped with.

Boom— After he landed, Halter turned all the gears in his body to take yet another leap. From behind, he could hear Vermouth shouting loudly:

“Hell yeah! Go get ’em, Boss—!!”

●

Along with Giovanni and Nono, Naoto descended to the fifteenth floor of the core tower.

Here, the entire floor had been made into a mega-sized spring barrel.

It was an incredibly vast space, with a total height of three thousand meters and a diameter of five thousand meters—its outer circumference was greater than fifteen thousand meters.

Its outer walls were more than double the thickness of the other floors’ walls. And that was to be expected; the governor and escapement that controlled the energy of an entire city were kept here.

—In other words, it was the very core of the city, that was more vital than any of its other mechanisms.

The floor was buried in countless swirling aggregates of gears from wall to wall.

Altogether, they were like a massive steel board with a longer circumference than a star’s—though, of course, they weren’t actually made of steel, but rather millions, billions, no, trillions of little whirlpools of gears.

“...It’s almost like our universe, isn’t it,” Giovanni muttered quietly.

Naoto nodded silently in agreement.

Unending heat and an unfathomable number of rotating parts lay here.

Even now, a thousand years later, humanity has yet to become capable of replicating these mechanisms.

—This too was unmistakably one of “Y”’s legacies.

This arcane super-technology was a gift that all humans in the modern era were blessed with upon birth.

Deep, deep inside this grand mechanism was a small hole.

In the very center of this massive space buried in gears of all sizes, the floor bulged upward greatly in the shape of a dome.

Installed there was a structure of some sort with countless shafts and bearings, an enormous cylinder made up of spheres—or maybe it was actually a screw, or perhaps the crown of a watch.

Standing before that enigmatic structure, Naoto asked, “Master, may I borrow Nono for a while?”

“I don’t mind. I was ordered to follow your directions by Kiu when it came to the work anyway.”

“Alright then, don’t mind if I do,” Naoto said, then turned around. “Nono, could you turn that massive screw for me when I give you the signal?”

“Si— Understood.”

The maid automaton bowed calmly, before grasping onto the screw that was larger than her own body with her hands.

“By the way—” Giovanni asked, sounding curious, “would you mind telling me what you’re trying to do?”

“I’m going to pull this grid out of the Equatorial Spring’s path,” Naoto answered candidly.

To which Giovanni pinched his chin and tilted his head, replying, “Hmm...? Do you intend to cut the grid off from its energy source?”

“Just temporarily, but yeah. I want to rearrange the coupling mechanism of the city, but I can’t do it with this channel in the way.”

“But wouldn’t the city mechanisms be down during that time, then?”

“If it’s just for a short while, the energy stored in the springs on this floor can cover things. The difficult part, though, is to switch the springs from automatic winding to manual winding for that...”

As he said that, Naoto tore off a square panel about a meter long on each side at the bottom of the structure, revealing a cave-like tunnel underneath.

“In the few minutes it takes to switch the energy supply line, I’ll need to manually set the right rotational speeds for each system of gears by allotting the right amount of energy to them myself.”

Turning on his penlight, Naoto slid into the pit. Fiddling with a mechanism on the tunnel’s wall, he connected it with the control panel he had brought with him.

Giovanni asked in a leisurely tone, “I’m not saying it’ll happen, but what would happen, theoretically, if you screwed up?”

“If the energy coming in is too weak, then the mainspring will stop turning, and if it’s too powerful, the subsidiary springs will blast away. Hahaha.”

Naoto was laughing, but what he was saying was no laughing matter at all.

He was intentionally risking destroy the grid mechanisms of Shangri-La—

If there were even one person with any sense here, it wouldn’t be strange for them to shoot Naoto dead on the spot for that, but for better or worse, there was no such person here.

Giovanni didn’t even rebuke him, despite understanding fully just how dangerous Naoto’s endeavor was. He simply looked on silently as Naoto worked with his hands, like a teacher watching over a student.

Popping his head out of the tunnel, Naoto called out loudly, “Nono, are you ready?”

The automaton replied dispassionately, “Si— I am standing by. Anytime you are ready.”

“Alright then, here goes,” Naoto said, then took a deep breath. He calmed his breathing, sharpened his alertness, and cleared his mind of all stray thoughts—then gave his orders.

“We’re beginning now—start turning.”

With the sound of heavy machinery creaking into motion, the hole began to rumble.

With much effort, Nono slowly turned the enormous screw from a crouching position, and the gears of the structure began to turn as well in response.

As the vibrations quietly spread out, several cylinders that had been embedded into the walls of the hole began to stick out one by one while turning.

The cylinders’ finely carved pins plucked the gear combs against the wall of the hole, letting out a shrill sound.

Eventually, all the parts in the hole began to bustle like an enormous music box. The hole seemed to be an entire system of parts by itself; a complete, stand-alone mechanism.

“Let’s see what these keys are for... ‘Gear Shift,’ ‘Equatorial Link’...”

There was uncertainty in Naoto’s hands as he fiddled with the control panel.

“Ugh, these aren’t it... Ah, it’s this one! ‘Self-Wind’—begin!”

Immediately after, the system shifted to a different mode.

It changed the supply of energy from the Equatorial Spring to the energy stored in the grid.

Upon which, one part of the structure in front of Naoto—a difference engine—began to turn its gears furiously.

The gear-based computer began to make loud typewriter-like sounds. Above its control panel, a metal belt with countless holes bored into it—a punch card—slid from one side to the other.

But Naoto wasn’t paying attention to any of that.

That was because he didn’t need the information from the punch card to grasp the structure of the core tower. To begin with, he couldn’t pull off reading one with his fingertips like Marie could, anyway.

“Alright... Shifting from the 546th system of gears to the 235th. Establishing connection,” Naoto muttered as he hit a key on the control panel.

As soon as he did, he felt a galaxy of gears that had been lying dormant begin to come to life.

Like a small spark gradually growing into a large flame, more and more mechanisms began to turn, as a small system of gears was disengaged and a large system was engaged in its place through a process of orderly chaos.

“...I’ve seen many people in my time, but I’ve never met anyone like you, Mr. Naoto,” the old man muttered abruptly. “You’re well aware of your own inexperience. However, you have zero doubt whatsoever when it comes to your own gut feeling. In that you have absolute confidence—a powerful conviction that goes beyond fanaticism. It’s truly mysterious. You’re humble to a fault, but somehow just as arrogant.”

“Umm... Should I take that as a compliment, or?”

“Eh, it’s just my impression of you.”

While looking back at Giovanni with a puzzled face, Naoto hit another key.

—Rotational speed at 1,544 radians per second; beginning shift to second gear.

A screech sounded.

It didn’t come from the mainspring, but rather from the mechanism that had been connected to it.

“Crap, it’s turning too fast,” Naoto said as he fiddled with the control panel.

—Resetting the clutch from second gear back to low gear.

Some of the cylinders that had protruded out from the wall of the hole began to recede while turning in the opposite direction. At the same time, a deep, pulsating sound rattled through the entire floor.

—Discarding the seventh channel; accelerating the 124th system.

“Looks like it connected... but the link looks a bit thin. I’ll have to connect another cylinder somewhere.”

—Rerouting the fifth channel to bypass the 646th system.

A splitting roar broke out.

One of the cylinders in the hole burst out of the wall like a cannonball—then immediately stopped.

“Aggggggggggh, goddammit! Their rotational speeds won’t maaaaatch!” Naoto cried out.

He rushed to fiddle with the control panel, upon which the sound immediately dropped lower in both pitch and volume. However, a deep grating sound coming from afar was still audible.

Naoto couldn’t stop himself from grumbling.

“Argh, c’mon, damn! Marie could probably do this while humming away... Why won’t it just work the way I want it to?!”

“There’s no way around that. Unlike me or her, you’ve only just begun taking your first baby steps,” Giovanni said with a pained smile. “But, well— Do you want to know a trick?”

“...A trick?”

“I’ll clue you in, as it’s still too early for me to die. Of course, I don’t know what it is that you’re doing exactly, but the tuning of mechanisms like that is all more or less the same.”

“Then please do so, now! Within the next thirty seconds, to be exact!”

—Otherwise we’re dead meat!

Despite the frantic look on Naoto’s face, Giovanni spoke calmly. “You said that you have a full grasp of this core tower’s structure, right?”

“Well basically, yeah!”

“Then can you imagine something that surpasses it?”

“—Huh?”

Naoto gasped, his eyes widening.

Looking down at Naoto, Giovanni smiled. “Enough with this foolishness. Don’t aim for the best. That’s merely the last stop on your journey.”

“...”

“Aim for better. This isn’t a compromise, but a challenge. That’s how your mindset should always be. In other words, that should be your path in life.”

“...ngh!”

Just then, Naoto hit a key on the control panel.

—Reengaging the clutch to the top gear.

Following that, several shrill sounds rang out overlappingly. The unpleasant discord of what sounded like metal being scraped away reverberated throughout the hole.

“If aiming for perfect is leaving you at a standstill, you might as well exhaust yourself trying all sorts of crazy solutions instead. Once you do that, everything that was confounding you will start to fall into place. That’s just how things work in our world.”

—Resetting the rotational speed to 3,669 radians per second.

“It’s too fast.”

—Resetting the rotational speed to 3,257 radians per second.

“Now it’s too slow.”

—Resetting the rotational speed to 3,467 radians per second!

The shrill sounds united as one in a resonant accord, and all the other mechanisms appeared to be engulfed by the galaxy of gears as they revved up their speeds to synchronize with it.

“For example,” Giovanni began, “right now, you’re just another player on stage. The missing score is no hindrance to you; you have it all in your mind, from which you’re recreating the perfect sound—but what’s the point, even if you achieve that?”

“So that’s why I should always strive for better, huh...”

“Even just as you are right now, you could surely become an absolute top-class player. But you could never become a composer, nor even an arranger, like this. You’d never reach that girl’s level; in fact, you wouldn’t even ever reach mine.”

“—That may be the case right now,” Naoto said as he looked up at Giovanni, “but when do you think I’ll be able to overcome that? As soon as today? ...Or if that’s impossible, then tomorrow?”

“You truly are a mysterious boy, aren’t you.”

Giovanni returned Naoto’s gaze with a wry smile.

With eyes that were filled with composure and expectation befitting of a veteran craftsman—he shot a challenging look at Naoto.

“Why bother asking these old bones what you’re already sure of in your gut, heart, and soul? Or should I take that as a declaration of war?”

Naoto didn’t reply. Instead he simply widened his smile as he continued to look up into Giovanni’s eyes with a challenging gaze.

“—Very well. But remember this. Every time you advance one step, I’ll remain one step further ahead.”

Though the tone of Giovanni’s voice might be gentle, Naoto distinctly sensed unmistakable ferociousness hidden in his words.

Actually, he probably had no intention to hide it at all.

—Stand up. Run. Face forward. Keep aiming higher. Train yourself to reach new heights.

—Using those new heights as my new footing is exactly how I can reach yet further heights!

The old man sneered, baring his teeth, “I may have only been a clocksmith for a mere eighty years, but it’s been an eighty years that I’m proud of. It is my belief that demonstrating to the younger generation of clocksmiths just how much one must sacrifice for mastery is also part of the older generation’s job.”

This is it, Naoto thought.

This dissatisfaction. This constant demand of more from oneself even after achieving such mastery that is built upon a lifetime of experience.

Surpassing the limits by a mile, yet still remaining in an endless pursuit of more.

Always challenging himself to do better, in the endless game to reach an impossible ideal.

...Naoto knew of someone who gave him a similar impression.

It was Marie.

They were the same in that they both lived life at a blistering pace with a motto of “never give in, never give up.”

However, the impression Naoto got from Giovanni was a far more tenacious, perfected version of that image.

Another way to put it would be that this might be what Marie would end up like if she continued to follow the right path...

Naoto thought,

—This kind of mentality must be something that I’m critically lacking in, which is why I wish I could be like them so badly.

Even if God were to appear before their eyes, they would surely declare, undaunted:

“I’ll surpass you, just you watch.”

And then, they’d never give up until they actually made good on that declaration. And if they actually do surpass God, they’d surely just set their sights on a new target and continue dashing.

And they’d probably keep that up until their very last breath.

That’s just the blistering nature of those who would try to claw at the throne of God.

Naoto hit a key on the control panel.

“System all clear... Full synchronization, start!”

With the help of a small control panel, the core tower, and his own ears, Naoto gained control over Shangri-La Grid.

The preparations were set.

All that was left now was to take a deep breath, harden his resolve, and throw down the gauntlet.

...I don’t know if I can live the way Marie or Giovanni do.

Well, it probably isn’t. Their way of life is different from mine.

But nonetheless—I thought: I don’t want to lose to them.

I’d hoped that one day I could get ahead of people like them who run like the wind.

If that’s indeed what I want, then there’s only one answer.

Naoto muttered, “—I’ll do the things I want to do, the way I like it, until I pull it off.”

He swore to himself:

Even if people mock me as childish, or tell me off as selfish, that’s what I’m going to do.

—Putting up with things, compromising, making concessions... Screw all of that.

That’s why I’ll begin today, now, with this one strike.

—I couldn’t care less about justice, or ideals, or sound rationales.

If you’ve got a problem with that—

“Now then, come at me all you want... ngggggh!!”

Immediately after—Shangri-La Grid was hit by a severe earthquake.

●

In the northern region of the Andaman Sea that sat just south of Shangri-La Grid, there were currently several battleships deployed.

They were the united force that had been summoned by IGMO, comprised of units from the militaries of the surrounding countries.

They had been summoned there because there was supposedly information that the heinous terrorist group Second Ypsilon, who had appeared a month ago in Japan’s capital, Tokyo Grid, had escaped to Shangri-La Grid.

The world’s leading city of crime and the world’s leading terrorist group had been combined together. Who knew just how explosive the combination of the two might be.

Given the situation, the soldiers naturally thought that a landing operation would immediately be executed... but that didn’t happen.

They had been given one order, and one order only—“Monitor the situation.”

They were not to make a move yet, because it was a grid in Thai territory, because negotiations were currently being conducted with local authorities, because of concern of the potential effect on regional economies and the lives of civilians—there were various reasons, but basically, things boiled down to political pressure.

The surrounding countries were all in agreement that they didn’t want to unnecessarily provoke Shangri-La Grid.

Because of that, despite there being ten-odd warships rallied here, they weren’t even allowed to set up an economic blockade.

They could only chew their nails as they watched cargo ships (and ones that were surely stuffed full of illegal goods at that) come and go right before their eyes.

While it vexed them, as soldiers they couldn’t simply ignore their governments’ orders and take independent action.

The only thing they could do was to look for something that might change the minds of the brass by diligently monitoring the sonar...

“—Captain, the gauge readings show something strange...” an information officer on the Thai destroyer “Maha Rat” reported.

Captain Thanarat parroted, sounding confused, “Strange? What do you mean?”

“Well, continuous small-scale tremors have been detected coming from Shangri-La Grid. Furthermore, there appears to be some sort of connection problem between the grid and the Equatorial Spring.”

“...Does that imply that they’re man-made phenomena?”

“The possibility of that is high, but the only thing I can say for sure is that values in this range have never been recorded here before.”

Captain Tharanat’s expression turned grim.

The only ones he could think of that would try something like messing with a grid mechanism was Second Ypsilon.

So, the infamous terrorist group has finally made their move, huh.

This operation is being directed by IGMO. Its objective is to oppose Second Ypsilon’s actions. As such, these abnormal circumstances are the perfect excuse to take concrete action.

“Call the Thai command center! Tell them that there’s a possibility that Second Ypsilon has made a move and ask for further instructions.”

“Roger!”

However, the reply they received from sending a report was not the one they were looking for.

The orders from their government remained unchanged—“Continue monitoring.”

They tried asking the IGMO flagship as well, but likewise, the reply was, “Remain on standby.”

“Damn these indecisive cowards...!” Captain Tharanat growled, grinding his teeth.

To begin with, this whole ordeal was a massive embarrassment for the Thai military.

First they’d had one of their destroyers stolen by Second Ypsilon, then one of their military harbor destroyed, then failed to catch them inside their own country... and furthermore, the grid that they escaped to was one of Thailand’s grids to begin with.

—We must redeem ourselves here at any cost.

But the fleet that we’re a part of is an allied force made up of ships from the regional countries.

If we ignore our own government’s orders and act without permission, we wouldn’t just be disgraced; we might even be sunk by ships from the other countries for acting on our own.

In that case... we need another push of some sort.

A grand cause that would provide justification for us acting at our own discretion—

“—Captain!” the information officer cried out.

Immediately after, the bridge of the ship was rocked by a heavy jolt that came with what sounded like a growl from the depths of hell.

“What’s going on?!”

“I, It’s an earthquake! The epicenter’s in Shangri-La Grid! This reading is way above the standard for quakes!” the information officer replied while clinging on to the transmission equipment next to him.

He then went on to report that the earthquake was affecting the surrounding countries and causing tsunamis in the waters they were in as well.

“Captain, this is clearly a manmade calamity! They’ve finally gotten serious...!”

“Urgh... ngh!” Captain Tharanat uttered in distress as he pondered what to do.

There’s no way that these readings are due to some sort of malfunction in our gauges. Second Ypsilon has made their move without a doubt now. Is there a possibility that this is a trap, or a stratagem of some sort? Of course. But if we twiddle our thumbs in fear of that, we might end up letting a calamity unfold right before our eyes...!

He made his decision.

“Turn ten degrees to port and turn both propellers on full throttle! We’re heading to Shangri-La Grid!”

“Roger, accelerating at full throttle!” the helmsman replied as he turned the rudder.

He confirmed with his naked eye that the other ships were also turning one by one after them.

“Receiving transmission from the flagship ‘Isvarah’!”

“Connect them to me.”

After a momentary pause, an angry voice shouted out from the transmission device by the commanding platform.

“Maha Rat, what are you doing! You are not to take solitary action!”

“...With all due respect, Your Excellency,” Captain Tharanat replied with utmost composure, “This is clearly an emergency situation. Second Ypsilon is trying to do something dangerous in Shangri-La Grid. Swiftly subduing their terrorism is our mission.”

“We’re the ones who make the call on that!”

“I recognize the current circumstances to be a case where emergency judgment should be applied. We’re simply fulfilling our duty in line with standard protocol.”

“No, your actions are breaching orders!”

“I see that we have a difference in opinion. In that case, allow me to justify myself in the council room later— Over and out,” Captain Tharanat said as he hit the switch on his transmission device.

The information officer asked with a stiff face, “Captain, are you sure?”

It was undoubtedly an emergency situation, but ignoring orders from the flagship so flagrantly would inevitably lead to problems later on. That was the true essence of the officer’s question, but his captain seemed to interpret it differently—

Captain Tharanat returned a calm gaze at the officer.

“How can I possibly not be? Tell me, what are we here for?”

“Yes sir... To respond to Second Ypsilon’s actions.”

“Then our mission is clear. Everyone, do your jobs.”

Captain Tharanat paused to look over the whole bridge before loudly giving out his orders. “Every second counts! Launch the fighters we have aboard! Those in the army are to prepare for landing immediately!”

●

Just as Shangri-La Grid was struck by a tempestuous earthquake—

A silhouette leapt out of a window from one of the upper floors of Pandora’s Inn.

The shadow blazed downward through the air along the exterior of the hotel, as if she were gliding on it at a speed far beyond what is humanly possible!

It was a child automaton, donned in armor with a silver and red color scheme, carrying a blond-haired girl under one arm.

It was Marie and AnchoR.

Kabooooom!

After tearing right through the atmosphere at supersonic speed, she landed with a thunderous boom, like that of a submarine’s depth charge detonating.

The shockwaves tore up the pavement and blew debris everywhere.

“—!”

Marie had closed her eyes, expecting a violent jolt from landing, but none came.

In fact, it almost felt as if she had gently been laid onto a bed of feathers.

Where’s the shock of impact? What happened to the law of inertia?

Such questions crossed her mind, but—Marie set them aside for now as she opened her eyes.

AnchoR asked with a puzzled face, “...? Mother, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. —More importantly, how do you feel? Does anything feel off?”

“It’s perfect!” AnchoR replied happily with a blush. She threw out her chest and puffed through her nose. “AnchoR’s fully back in business!”

“That’s good to hear,” Marie said, smiling back at her. She then slipped out of AnchoR’s underarm—and instantly fell on her butt, having her feet caught in the violent tremors that were still going strong.

“—Ugh... Is that idiot trying to stir up a ruckus all by himself?” Marie scowled.

This earthquake is clearly different from the minor tremors that occur when the grid mechanism releases built-up stress.

There’s almost no doubt that this is something Naoto cooked up.

In which case— Marie thought as she turned around. Looking up at the girl who remained standing effortlessly despite the violent shaking, she said, “AnchoR, you should go help RyuZU.”

“Okay! ...But Mother, what will you do, then?” AnchoR asked worriedly.

Marie smiled confidently. “I’ll be fine. I can at least take care of myself. More importantly,” she continued with a solemn face, “RyuZU’s in far more danger. For her to have asked me for a favor, things have to be pretty dire.”

She said that the one who attacked us was an Initial-Y.

And she had clearly mentioned before that she could never win in a head-on battle against any of her sisters.

“Y, Yeah... Big Sis isn’t very strong, so...”

“I still have trouble wrapping my head around that concept... but well, in that case, the only one who can save her is you, AnchoR.”

As she finished speaking, the tremors finally died down.

It appeared that the quake had caused quite the chaos, as screams and rumbles could be heard from afar.

Marie got on her knees before standing up. She then set both her hands onto AnchoR’s shoulders and said, “—Go now. Do the job that only you can do.”

To which AnchoR widened her eyes. She replied, tightening her lips, “Yes.”

She nodded firmly.

Then, turning around, she walked away from Marie a little, then instantly lowered her body.

Boom.

Smashing the road beneath her into pieces, the little automaton blasted off with the force of thunder.

As Marie saw her off, she muttered quietly, “...Now then, I wonder what I should do.”

She needed a plan.

Marie held her chin and tilted her head, thinking.

From the earthquake just now, it seems that Naoto’s up to something in the core tower, though I’m not sure what he’s trying to do. Does that mean I should go lend him a hand?

But it’ll be tough for me to break into the core tower by myself, considering that the Arsenal lackeys must be on high alert right now after what just happened...

...As I expected, the first thing I need to do is get in contact with Naoto somehow—

At that moment, Marie’s mind suddenly turned blank.

“——Whaah?”

She had been staring up into space while pondering, but she suddenly noticed that there was something peculiar in her field of vision.

The sun had begun to set and the sky was taking on a vivid red in the southeastern nation. It was a clear day without a single cloud to be seen—correction, there were actually a number of thin, twisting lines of white.

...I’ve seen something like this before.

It was when I was invited to an air show somewhere. The letters that were written in smoke by the airplanes dancing with grace looked pretty close to this...

Marie tried reading the words that the white bands spelled out.

—“Quit slacking, Ms. Walking Landmine, and get your butt to the westernmost clock tower immediately!”

Apparently, the sender had even made sure to punctuate his message properly. He wouldn’t want to be rude, after all.

...I get the principle behind it.

With control over a city’s core tower, writing some words in the sky with clouds by manipulating the atmospheric pressure and gravity in the city is child’s play. It’s child’s play, but...

“That idiot... Did he seriously cause an earthquake just to do this?”

Struck by an intense pang in her forehead, Marie inadvertently staggered.

—Calm down. No matter how stupid he is, he can’t be that—wait, no. He’s actually even stupider. Wait, wait, wait. Calm down, Marie Bell Breguet. This is nothing new. You shouldn’t be getting flustered. Yeah, he’s an idiot, but there’s usually some logic behind his idiocy—

...?

Isn’t this weird?

Marie sank deep into thought, her face turning serious.

If he just wants to relay this message to me, he could just hijack a communications line near me. Actually if that’s all he wants, he wouldn’t even have to do that; he could have just had Vermouth tell me this when he was here.

Yet, he’s deliberately choosing to use such a conspicuous method, and in plain language at that? Does he want the enemy to know our plans or something?

I’m already being targeted by just about every organization in Shangri-La as is, yet that guy—

“—Wait, don’t tell me that’s his aim?!”

Marie was shocked.

The message itself couldn’t be clearer.

Go to the westernmost clock tower in the city—which is the ninth. He’s most likely got some work that he wants me to do there. I can guess what he wants me to do as well.

...But, what would happen if he publicized these instructions?

Marie already had a target on her back. One so large, in fact, that an assassin came after her right after RyuZU left. Revealing where she was headed now would let the enemy know exactly where to look for her.

“That guy! Is he trying to lure the enemy by using me as bait?!”

...It’s not a bad plan. By giving our enemies a location, we can predict their moves and take care of them all at once, which would also allow us to limit the amount of damage done to the city.

But—

“And just when I thought I’d finally gotten used to his stupidity... ngh!”

The problem—is that means that I’ll have to break into a clock tower that’ll be full of all those enemies waiting for me.

In other words, he’s basically just throwing it all on me to do something about all these organizations.

...

“That perverted, rotten, no-good dumbass! The hell is he thinking?! Does he think I’m a Hollywood action star or something?!” Marie yelled, stomping her foot in frustration.

—Like I could possibly pull off such a stunt!

Just then.

Sensing something behind her, she turned around and saw a large truck headed right towards her at a fearsome speed.

Just as she rushed onto the sidewalk, the truck suddenly braked harshly before coming to a screeching halt slightly in front of her.

A woman with an insolent look on her face leaned out from the driver’s seat—or rather, a cyborg man did.

“Hey! My cute Parisienne? Need a ride?”

It was Vermouth, who was apparently in a good mood for some reason.

As Marie stared at him while giving him the stink eye, she asked, “Oy... Did you get a fix just now or something?”

“Leave me alone, women wouldn’t understand. I was just reminded of the young boy dreamer that I was for the first time in a while... So, what’s it gonna be? You gettin’ on?”

“—Yes, well, I suppose I could grace you with my presence.”

“Oui, mademoiselle.”

With a flippant smile on his face, Vermouth opened the door of the passenger seat.

As she climbed up to the door and got in, Marie said, “You really just like to pop out of nowhere at the right time, don’t you.”

“That’s my job, y’see,” Vermouth said with a shrug as he hit the gas.

“So, should I head to the ninth clock tower, or?”

“Yes, but the problem is...”

There’s surely going to be all sorts of enemies standing in our way.

That’ll most likely include thugs from Market, Restaurant, the other organizations—and of course, Arsenal as well.

It might be tempting to write them off as mere punks, but I have to imagine there’ll be some ex-soldiers and mercenaries among them. And it’s not just going to be cyborgs and lightly armored automata, either. There’s surely going to be some heavily armored automata and stuff in that class as well.

So, how should we try to break through?—

Seeing Marie furrow her brows, Vermouth smirked. “—Look at that pretty face; it’s no wonder all the tough guys throughout Shangri-La are just drooling to get their hands on you.”

“Hey, don’t put it in such a disgusting way!”

“Shouldn’t you be happy that you’re getting attention from guys?”

“Who’d be happy about that?!”

“—Just relax, would you mademoiselle,” Vermouth said, suddenly turning quiet. “It isn’t every day that we’ll get to put on an improvised play, so enjoy it for what it is. Everyone’s simply running around doing whatever the hell they want, showing just how stupid they are right now. You being all serious by yourself isn’t going to help anyone.”

Marie snorted, tightening her lips sullenly. “If this is an improvised play, then that would make my role an offer that someone forced onto me, right? —So what it boils down to is simply that he’s making me pay the consequences for him doing whatever he wants, no?”

“If you don’t like his script, then why don’t you just tear it to shreds? No one’ll blame you, y’know.”

“This far into it all?”

...The show’s already begun.

I can more or less guess what Naoto wants to do. Most likely, he hasn’t gained full control over the core tower yet—because his technical skills aren’t up to par with his senses yet.

Based on that assumption, it can be inferred that the reason he wants me to go to a clock tower is so that I can back him up from outside of the core tower.

In that case, then... what would happen if I chose not to go to a clock tower now?

It probably won’t end with just the core tower becoming unresponsive. I don’t know exactly what Naoto did, but I’m sure he made a mess... just imagining the cleanup work that’ll be necessary makes my head hurt.

“Curse that idiot, he’s basically blackmailing me.”

“Don’t let it get to you, my lovely attrice. If it’s a stage you must get on, then let’s put on some fireworks, yeah?” Vermouth said cheerfully before sharply turning the steering wheel.

The scenery outside the windows blurred into a swirl.

Turning her head to face forward, she saw a group of men pointing guns at their truck.

—They’re making an entrance already, huh.

Marie got down and pulled out her coil spear, growling, “It’d be great if this could end as a comedy! But in reality, life goes on both before and after the curtain call, you know?”

“Cleanup is for the stage hands, darling. The starring actress should just throw on her gown and pop off a champagne.”

“Is that so! Then tell me, who’s going to clean up the mess before our eyes?!”

“Oy oy, have you forgotten?” Vermouth replied flippantly with a ferocious smile.

—Immediately after, gunshots and screams rang out simultaneously.

The group of gunmen in front of them all collapsed onto the ground, having been shot out of nowhere.

“...?!”

As Marie goggled at the sight before her, Vermouth stepped on the gas and said, “—You’ve got the coolest man alive, someone with unrivaled skills by your side as your bodyguard, don’t’cha?”

●

“—Nice timing, Vermouth. You have my thanks.”

Halter smiled as he gazed at the speeding truck through the sights of his gun.

He was lying down in sniping position on the rooftop of an old hospital to the west of Suan Dok Gate.

The hospital was considerably taller than the surrounding buildings, so the view on the rooftop was largely unobstructed. It was the perfect location to snipe from.

Halter laid down his sniping rifle, then threw off his urban camouflage cloak and got up.

I’ve eliminated most of the threats on the way.

Well, the ones that belonged to an organization, at least. And as for the small-time lone wolves who were just crashing the party, they’re probably scurrying away with their tails tucked right about now. There might be one or two with defective noses left, but Vermouth alone will be enough to deal with them.

—What’s left is the big fish.

He turned around.

His eyes landed on the ninth clock tower, which sat inside the whitely painted grounds of a temple—and the unit of Arsenal’s troops gathered there.

Unsurprisingly, even from afar it’s clear that they’re on a totally different level from the street punks with guns.

Their equipment might be all over the place, but considering that they’ve got an orderly line of defense set up, they’ve certainly received a fair level of training. They should have actual combat experience too, to some degree.

I’m counting about four hundred to five hundred men. A battalion-sized unit, huh.

But even that is nothing compared to the six heavily armored automata that I also see.

“We’re supposed to demolish this force, huh.” Halter smiled cringingly.

That’s quite the joke.

As a mercenary who had stood on many battlefields before, his instincts were telling him to withdraw immediately.

Heavily armored automata are things that a cyborg was neither meant to face nor should face.

He might be sporting a seventh-gen body right now, but when all was said and done, he was only one man. If he got hit with one of the side cannons of a heavily armored automaton, there’d be nothing left of him; even shots from the lightly armored ones and the soldiers might inflict lethal harm to him if he took a direct hit from them.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t even try to fight them to begin with; instead, he’d look for another method.

But things were different now.

Could he really pull off this reckless, irrational, absurd stunt?

That was the question Halter was faced with.

“Well, ain’t no way around it. Guess I’ll take a swing at it.”

Curling his lips, Halter leapt off the rooftop—

Into free fall from an eight-story building without any protective gear.

Someone with a living body would die instantly upon hitting the ground, but he was able to land easily with his cyborg body.

He then smashed down on the button of a device hanging from his belt.

Boom— Boom, and boom.

As the blasts resounded, countless cries and shrieks overlapped.

The sounds were coming from the direction of the clock tower—Halter had just detonated some bombs there that he had planted in advance.

As he lowered his body and broke into a sprint, he thought,

—Fair and square? If you want to fight honorably like Don Quixote, then go right ahead.

But as a mercenary, I’m going to fight like one.

I’m going to fight as cowardly, despicably, under-handedly, nastily—as I possibly can.

Making his way through one last side alley, he slipped himself to the side of the enemy base.

All the while, gunshots continued to resound from the enemy base without a pause.

—So it’s begun.

The ones shooting right now are probably Market’s troops under Don Carlos’s command.

Having explicitly violated his agreement with Kiu Tai Yu, his ass is basically on fire right now. Now that he’s failed to abduct Marie from the hotel, the only choice left for him is to try to take advantage of the commotion we’ve been stirring up to crush Arsenal, then try to capture Marie again.

I’m guessing he thought that the blasts I set off gave him a good opportunity to start an attack, but...

“Sorry, but you’d need more help than that.”

They might be momentarily confused right now from my bombs, but I imagine that Arsenal’s troops will get back on their feet in no time. And once that happens, it’s the end of the road for Don Carlos.

As such—

“Guess I’ll do what I can to shore things up,” Halter muttered. He then pulled out a mini grenade launcher from his back, and, as he continued to run, pointed it upwards without aiming at anything in particular.

What the grenade launcher was loaded with was not a grenade.

—With crisp, sizzling sounds, a smoke bomb shot out of the launcher.

It traced an arc in the air until it was right above the line of defense that the enemy had set up, where it exploded, spreading smoke evenly over the area.

“W, What’s going on?!”

“It’s a smoke bomb! They’re gonna charge at us! Prepare yourselves to fight!” one of Arsenal’s soldiers yelled.

But no charge from Market’s troops came.

Halter’s aim in setting off the smoke bomb was to create confusion among Arsenal’s troops. The automata might be another matter, but the human soldiers couldn’t recklessly fire if they had their vision obstructed like this, as it could lead to friendly-fire.

That said, one smoke bomb wasn’t going to buy him much time.

He had to hurry.

Looking in front of him, he saw a soldier with a rifle at the ready.

—Is he in the middle of a patrol? Looks like he hasn’t noticed me yet. —He’s being a nuisance.

Upon determining that without hesitation, Halter accelerated.

He closed the distance. As he came right up to the soldier, the soldier finally noticed him, shouting, “It’s the ene—!”

“It sure is,” Halter muttered as he grabbed the soldier’s face and twisted it. Crack.

He immediately began running again, continuing right on his way.

As he made his way deeper into the enemy base, the buildings surrounding him became shorter and shorter. He was getting close to the central plaza. Even here, he was still under the cover of his smoke bomb, the smoke having been carried quite a ways by the wind.

Just as he made it through an alley, he saw a heavily armored automaton in the shadows of the buildings and smoke.

I can’t tell what model it is. It feels somewhat like a Vacheron unit, but it doesn’t match anything I know. I’m guessing it’s a unit that was modded in this city—

Detecting Halter with its compound visual sensors, the automaton turned its 98 mm autocannon towards Halter—

And fired.

Halter continued to run without stopping. Finding cover wouldn’t help. If a storm of armor-piercing ammo came his way, it’d pierce right through and turn him into swiss cheese regardless. And trying to lose the automaton was futile, too. Its compound eyes could easily capture his figure, even in the midst of this smoke.

—If it were the dollies in our group, Halter wondered, would they be able to see shells this fast coming and dodge them?

If so, that would be so unfair. No matter how advanced artificial bodies get, they still wouldn’t be able to speed up the processing speed of the brain. Even with the help of stimulants, my brain is still only moving a mere 64% faster than normal right now.

For a human brain to visually process a shell that was flying towards him at three thousand meters per second out of the barrel, even adjusted for his movement trajectory and dodge was, to understate things—impossible.

As such, Halter had only one option.

That was to slide into the one blind spot of the enemy automaton—by its feet!

“...ngh!”

A shell exploded right behind him, the thunderous noise tearing right through the membrane of his auditory sensors. Glass and other debris from the buildings scattered everywhere as he dashed towards the automaton’s feet. Suppressing the nasty chills he was getting from putting himself at the reach of Death’s scythe, he looked up at his target.

It was a bipodal, heavily armored automaton with a reverse joint design.

“An automaton of this type should have a weakness right around... there!” Halter muttered, ascertaining his precise target. He then leapt upward.

Halter latched on to a side ladder used for maintenance that rested in a small gap in the automaton’s back plating.

Sensing that Halter had snuck onto its back, the heavily armored automaton twisted and turned like an untamed horse. However, Halter was able to hold on tight with the strength of his artificial arm with one hand as he pulled out a pistol from his waist with his other hand.

It was the trans-system pistol he had acquired two days ago—Monarca.

A typical cyborg would have been shaken off long ago by now, but Halter was still holding on strong as he switched the pistol to strafe mode with proficiency and took aim.

He fired.

Twenty rounds of 15 mm armor piercing ammo—but even that wouldn’t be enough to penetrate the plating of a heavily armored automaton. However, it was more than enough firepower to shatter the lock on the maintenance hatch.

Putting his gun away, Halter tore the hatch right off and peered at the mechanisms inside.

—If this were Marie, he thought with a wry smile, if I had the skills of a Meister, I’d probably be putting on a show hacking this machine and making it do what I want but, well, I’m not.

“Not a big deal, though. I just have to do this instead then,” he muttered as he took out a cylindrical module from his backpack and stuffed it inside an empty socket inside the hatch.

The heavily armored automaton’s behavior immediately changed.

It writhed about and trembled as if it were in pain.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Halter swiftly jumped off the automaton and hid himself in the shadows of the buildings and the smoke while taking care to elude the automaton’s sensors.

Then, the heavily armored automaton suddenly turned around, readied its main cannon—and fired.

—At the allied base.

“Gwahhhh?!” a soldier screamed.

“W, What the, wait! There are allies over here—!!” another shouted angrily.

But the heavily armored automaton paid their cries no mind as it went on a rampage and fired every which way without aim.

Watching its rampage from afar, Halter whistled.

“Hmm... Looks like that toy is more useful than I thought.”

The module that Halter had stuffed inside the automaton earlier was a device that interfered with its artificial intelligence.

Right now, the automaton should be seeing everything around it as enemies due to the module interfering with its IFF system.

The module was highly illegal, having originally been developed by terrorist organizations for heinous purposes—but in this city, one could find it at the street stall around the corner.

Furthermore, it was supposed to be inserted before the unit that the AI was running booted up, not when the unit was already up and running in combat, but—

“Well now, how many enemies will you clean up for me...?” Halter muttered drily in the shadows.

Ten? Twenty? If it takes down some of the other heavily armored automata as well that’d be just perfect, but that’s probably hoping for too much...

Still, with this, I’ve crushed one of the six greatest threats.

Five units left and several hundred soldiers. The battle’s a total snafu right now.

Market’s troops might serve as a distraction for us to some extent, but on top of being incapable, they’re not our allies either.

...So I’m supposed to clean the rest of this up by myself?

Halter felt like something heavy was digging into his shoulders. He couldn’t help but feel assaulted by a strong urge to just head back and gulp down a bottle of whiskey, but—

Letting out a deep, deep sigh, Halter stroked his bald head.

Then growled, “—God, you leave me no choice, do you?! Fine then, I’ll show you what an old grandpa cyborg can do when he gets serious!”

●

RyuZU was in the middle of an intense fight against TemP, who had activated her inherent ability.

The field she had chosen to fight on was an abandoned cylindrical building near the area where the fight originally began.

There was an atrium in the center of the building that let her move up and down freely, while the floors on the sides provided plenty of cover. It was a favorable stage for RyuZU, whose forte was fighting with speed and maneuverability in all three dimensions.

However.

RyuZU dashed along the thick and sturdy walls like the ray of a shooting star.

“ngh—!”

To her front—she sensed a resonance reaction incoming.

RyuZU immediately jumped to the left.

She just barely did so in time to escape the blast of destruction that broke out.

She was headed towards the atrium.

Unsatisfied with the speed of free fall, she propelled herself downward by using her pair of black scythes as an extension of her arms, quickly slipping down to the floor below.

Looking down, RyuZU saw TemP looking back up at her with her entire body covered in light and her lips twisted into a mocking smile.

“I knew you were a slippery one... but it’s still irritating,” she muttered to herself, feeling antsy.

—Moon Phase.

That was the Third of the Initial-Y, TemP the Aerial’s inherent ability.

Her Phononic Gear was based on the same technology underlying the Fourth’s Perpetual Gear, but was made in an effort to better control the infinite output of energy.

It was a rebellion against the nature of matter. By manipulating phonons, or sound particles, she could neutralize all vibrations and interfere with the boundaries of matter.

Right now, TemP could probably even remove the restraints of being physical matter and become a block of pure energy if she wanted to.

As for what that meant—

Suddenly, TemP just disappeared.

“...!”

RyuZU dodged to her side posthaste. To begin with, running away was all she could do against TemP’s resonance attacks. Launching any kind of physical attack would have no effect whatsoever at this point.

Behind RyuZU, along with the sound of spacetime splitting, came a burst of light.

The matter that was caught lost its form. The wall, floor, and ceiling of the aisle that RyuZU had been standing on—all of it was engulfed by light and annihilated, dissolving into pure energy.

The radiant ball of energy then took on the form of a girl, TemP.

The ball of energy shouted, “I’m not going to let you get away, Elder Sister—!!”

This was TemP’s ability.

TemP had not been programmed with a combat algorithm.

The reason for that was simple: she’d be too much of a monster if she had been.

In other words, she wasn’t designed to be a fighter.

But, should she ever fight with a combat algorithm optimized for her capabilities, her combat strength would likely even rival that of AnchoR’s.

After all, she was capable of changing the phase of all matter on demand.

—Move. Just by thinking that, she could resonate with spacetime and teleport.

—Break. Just by thinking that, she could neutralize matter and annihilate it.

She was glowing brilliantly in an awfully flashy way right now, but that actually wasn’t even necessary.

By becoming a block of consolidated energy—or in other words, a vibration—she could dance freely through spacetime while remaining unobservable.

Just like how the moon waxes and wanes, but remains present throughout all time—

RyuZU leapt.

She used all four limbs and her black scythes to accelerate in a 3D trajectory while deftly keeping herself under cover.

“Grr... You slippery little weasel!” TemP shouted.

While she might be able to deal with it if RyuZU were only moving in laterally, she just couldn’t keep up in this kind of battle of maneuverability. From her point of view, an enemy that she could easily crush if she could just get her hands on her had slipped away at the last second many times now.

—I imagine she is feeling quite vexed right now.

RyuZU smiled.

The massive quake earlier should mean that something is going on at the core tower.

In other words, my master is making his move.

Despite being behind enemy lines, he is still fighting for his beliefs, following his own sense of justice.

“—Master Naoto.”

RyuZU felt proud of that fact.

The spring hidden behind heavy gears in her chest throbbed, the nerve wires strung throughout her body resonated, and her main cylinder fluttered like a butterfly.

Then, what is it that I should do right now?

As his follower, what should I strive for?

The ball of energy shouted, “You’re just going to run and run and run like that after running your big mouth?! You make me laugh, Elder Sister!”

“—Being told that by my younger sister whose laughability remains in the present continuous tense really stings, I must say,” RyuZU said without bothering to turn around as she leapt up even higher.

That said, I don’t have any counterattacks available either.

My only weapons are my scythes—good for physical slash attacks only. Now that TemP has activated her inherent ability, even if I entered into Mute Scream, I wouldn’t be able to deal a decisive blow to her.

Considering the situation, I guess my only way to win—is to make TemP burn through her energy until she cannot maintain Moon Phase anymore.

But while it may be easy to evade her attacks because of her bad aim, her attacks are powerful enough that if I am hit by even one of them, that would be the end of it. Can I continue to dodge all of them indefinitely? —Could that not possibly lead to an even more dire situation long before her spring runs out of energy?

—This is really tough.

RyuZU groaned.

Just then.

“!”

The building shook.

With an agonizing screech, spacetime was torn and part of the wall collapsed.

It wasn’t a resonance reaction that TemP induced. It was something more simple than that—destruction by fusion brought about by a ridiculous amount of energy.

An endearing voice shouted, “Big Sister...!”

—An angel stood in the midst of the dust and debris.

It was AnchoR, in her silver armor and with a giant sword that exceeded her own height in hand.

“Wha, no way, AnchoR—?!” the ball of energy cried.

“So, you made it in time. I guess that means that Mistress Marie is not completely useless after all,” RyuZU said, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Just who could possibly have repaired AnchoR, given the state that she was in... Never mind, that doesn’t really matter.”

TemP glared at her younger sister, who had joined the party uninvited.

“AnchoR? I’m sorry to tell you, but I won’t be destroyed again. Know that if you plan to get in the way of me killing Elder Sister, there will be pain coming your way, alright?”

The radiance shrouding TemP intensified threateningly.

—She couldn’t afford to hold back against AnchoR.

Still, she could destroy anything in one hit. If she landed a direct hit with Moon Phase activated, even AnchoR wouldn’t be able to just shrug it off, as sturdy as she was—

However.

AnchoR’s response to TemP’s threat was to tilt her head with a blank face.

She lowered her giant sword as she looked up at her two older sisters staring each other down in the atrium of the building and asked, “...Big Sisters... why are you fighting?”

“Huh?” TemP faltered, putting her hand against her lips. She clearly hadn’t considered it before.

As she stared into space, the light shrouding her turned hazy.

“Why? ...That’s because...”

“That’s because?”

“Umm, well, I guess it’d be because Elder Sister wrecked me two hundred years ago... and because she started calling me a defective unit out of nowhere... I guess that’s the gist of it?”

Receiving TemP’s incoherent answer, AnchoR looked up at RyuZU and asked, “...Is that what happened?”

“Yes, roughly speaking.” RyuZU nodded.

To which TemP began to look more and more puzzled, and asked, “...Why did you do that?”

RyuZU nodded again. Adjusting her posture, she threw out her chest, replying, “—Because she’s a stupid girl.”

Right after, she dodged to the side.

The place she had just been standing on was annihilated by a resonance reaction. As a ball of light engulfed the matter, TemP said from within that radiance, her voice trembling in anger, “That’s how it is, AnchoR. Elder Sister seems to hate me for some reason—”

“—Stupid girl,” RyuZU repeated while jumping. “I see that you really have forgotten the contract we sisters are all bound to—”

Hearing a pitiful ring in RyuZU’s voice, TemP gulped, muttering, “Con...tract?”

“You have everything confused. The supreme purpose you were given, the abilities you were endowed with, their proper use, everything—all of it is something that is absolutely unforgivable.”

“I’m not mistaken about anything!” TemP shouted. Light shot out from her eyes and gouged a hole out of the pillar right in front of RyuZU.

“I’m TemP the Aerial—no one can hold me down! Live more freely than anyone else! Act as you please! That’s the supreme mission I was given, and this is the power I was endowed with for that purpose!”

“Is that your answer? Do you really have no doubt of that whatsoever—?” RyuZU asked pleadingly. It even sounded like she was begging for mercy.

However, TemP shook her head like a child throwing a tantrum and yelled, “What doubt? —I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“—That is unfortunate.”

RyuZU closed her eyes for just a second.

When she reopened them, what was gleaming from her eyes was pure resolve.

“Goodbye, TemP—I imagine that this will be our final farewell.”

“ngh, Elder SisterrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRR—!!” TemP howled.

As she dodged the resonance reaction that sparked from TemP’s howling, RyuZU landed next to AnchoR.

AnchoR said anxiously, “Big Sister...”

RyuZU cast her eyes downward, replying with a cold voice, “I made a grave mistake two hundred years ago, AnchoR. Despite knowing that TemP was broken, I bet on a fleeting hope.”

“...”

“I figured that while she was broken now, someone might come along one day and help her remember the proper way to live... To that end, I stopped short of damaging her beyond repair, but...” She paused, sighing deeply. “However, seeing that she is repeating the same mistake even after being repaired, there is nothing more to be said. It is our job to finish her before she becomes unstoppable.”

As she finished speaking, RyuZU looked up.

However, AnchoR shook her head, saying gently, “—That’s not true. You weren’t wrong at all, Big Sister.”

RyuZU was flabbergasted. Looking up at her older sister, AnchoR continued resolutely, “We have to stop her.”

“—But she’s already—”

“Then we just have to stop her again. As many times as it takes,” AnchoR said with a smile.

Gripping her giant sword tight with her left hand, she placed her right hand on her chest.

“Because that’s what I promised—because that’s what the power of AnchoR the Trishula is for!”

“—”

RyuZU’s eyes widened.

She was genuinely dumbfounded, which rarely ever happened to her. She remained still for several seconds, before putting on a pained smile.

“You really are the adorable little sister that I am so proud of,” RyuZU whispered.

AnchoR blushed in embarrassment, then took a step forward and said, “Now then, Big Sister!”

“Yes. Let us go now to stop another one of my cute little sisters, though I cannot say I am proud of this one!”

—Their gears turned. Their wires crackled. Their cylinders pumped.

With unwavering wills and a mission to accomplish, the two automata leapt up simultaneously.

●

Seeing the sight before him, Commander Cormack of Arsenal’s enforcement unit muttered dumbfoundedly, “What, is this...”

He couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing right before his eyes.

The adjutant by his side looked like he was about to faint as well.

“T, This... How can such a ridiculous thing...”

His body was shaking all over, so much so that it was really quite amazing how he was still standing up. He hadn’t been shot or anything. His mind was crumbling purely from the mental shock.

Cormack understood exactly how his adjutant felt. He knew that that was how humans naturally reacted to things beyond their comprehension—but at the same time, for better or worse, he wasn’t so dim-witted a man that he could escape from the reality before his eyes.

—Hell was unfolding around them.

Just ten or twenty minutes ago this place was the plaza in front of the clock tower. But now, it was covered in flames and smoke, and the ground was full of holes.

And above all, the dead bodies of his soldiers both human and cyborg, the ruins of lightly armored automata, and even those of heavily armored automata—lay pitifully on the ground.

The large majority of these had been Cormack’s subordinates.

There were some guys from Market who had been attacking among the corpses as well, but that didn’t matter to him right now. They were already dead anyway.

He turned around.

Behind him were a half-destroyed lightly armored automaton, three living soldiers including his adjutant, and four cyborg soldiers.

Everyone else was dead.

As a tactical advisor, Cormack had been in charge of an entire battalion—nearly Arsenal’s entire force. And yet, what was this situation? All he was left with was a half-broken piece of junk and seven subordinates.

—It wasn’t that he couldn’t acknowledge that fact.

The losses themselves were whatever to him. In terms of simply the scale of destruction, Cormack had experienced even bloodier and more ruthless battlefields than this. Those had been true hell.

The problem was—

“You’re telling me... that all this was done by a single cyborg?!”

—this unbelievable truth.

Turning his head forward, he was able to make out the enemy in the plaza that had become scorched earth.

The lone man was kneeling in silence on top of a pile of corpses.

—Vainney Halter.

Cormack had first confirmed his presence and realized who had been attacking them aside from Market when the six heavily armored automata were all destroyed. He had been busy dealing with the chaos that was Market’s assault force and the allied heavily armored automaton that had gone rogue up to that point.

—Even after being discovered, the man had been a tough nut to crack.

By that time, half his battalion was already gone. Still, Cormack had determined that the man was the biggest threat, and ordered his remaining troops to eliminate him. However, the man shielded himself with their dead allies’ corpses and used the natural obstacles in the plaza as cover, weaving in and out of the shadows like a phantom as he tore through the battlefield.

His combat execution was simply marvelous. He always took the most rational, optimal line. I wish I could have captured some shots to publish in a tactical manual.

If you challenged him to a firefight, he’d crush you one-sidedly. If you pressed on until he ran out of rounds, he’d snatch one of your guns to use. And if you lost sight of him, by the time you’d find him again, twenty more of your allies would be dead.

In the end, only by taking out my precious electromagnetic pulse magnet—was I finally able to take him down. Dozens of allied cyborgs were inevitably caught in the pulse as well.

“Fucking shit...! Just who is this monster?! I’d find it more believable if you told me he was an Initial-Y!”

Yes—if that were the case, I could comprehend it somewhat.

That insanely advanced technology with its absurd capabilities—“Y”’s legacy. It’d have been better if we were crushed by one of those magical, miraculous things. Well, it’d still suck, but I’d probably have been able to accept it as being hit by a natural disaster or something.

But this is different.

...Vainney Halter.

The bastard—he should be a mere human!

Cormack knew of the man’s nicknames.

Oberon. Overwork. The legendary mercenary who creates miracles in the most desperate of situations—

I didn’t doubt his reputation. I didn’t underestimate him. I assumed his reported combat resume and achievements to be true—but even so, this kind of performance is simply unbelievable.

He seemed to have been using an outstanding artificial body, but that fact alone is hardly enough to justify a single soldier destroying a five-hundred-man battalion any more believable.

Such a thing should never happen.

“I won’t accept it...” Cormack growled in a deep voice as he pulled out the pistol at his waist.

The hand that held the gun was trembling, so he had to stabilize it with his other hand as he carefully took aim at the head of the silent, kneeling man.

All I have to do now is pull the trigger, and this absurdity will be forever gone from this world—

“Grrawh! Like I’ll accept such a thing—!”

—Bang.

●

Halter was in the middle of darkness.

Well actually, that wasn’t quite accurate.

The battle had been going smoothly for him—well, that might be an overstatement. Still, he felt that he had accomplished quite a feat.

He might have inadvertently relaxed a bit, seeing that he was just about to complete his objective. Or perhaps the credit should go to the commander, who had resolved to shoot an electromagnetic pulse despite knowing that allied cyborgs would get caught in it as well.

In any case, Halter had been hit by an electromagnetic pulse grenade.

...It was a tactical weapon that made use of the forbidden electromagnetic technology. It was an item that shouldn’t have been easy to obtain even in this city, but he had one nonetheless.

He was able to prevent his body from being entirely totaled, but the more relatively sensitive mechanisms in his body—like all of his sensors—had been destroyed.

Right now, out of the five senses, Halter had none.

His mind was simply floating in a void, having lost reception of all external signals.

Under this condition, he couldn’t even move his limbs.

...It appeared that this was where he would meet his end.

This is how I meet my end after screwing everything up big time, huh... I’m sure the princess is gonna laugh at me for this... He groaned internally, unable to speak.

To Halter, this wasn’t exactly an unfamiliar sensation.

This was how it felt when a human brain stored inside a clockwork case wasn’t connected to any external input devices. It was something that all cyborgs inevitably experienced at least once when their brain was first transplanted.

If one didn’t keep their mind active in this state, even the ego would fade. Forget the difference between up and down, even the flow of time became murky. It was a phantom world more ephemeral than dreams.

It was basically a state of pseudo-death.

It was said that someone mentally weak would go insane in a mere few seconds in this state, losing all sense of self...

Surprisingly, Halter didn’t really dislike this sensation. Well, of course he did feel some anxiety and unease at being completely defenseless against the external world, but...

Even so, this tranquility that came with being released from all burden gave him a sort of spiritual high.

There was nothing here.

Without any external signals coming in, the only thing he could use to affirm his own existence was his own mind.

Or so that was how it should have been, but...

“Oh? So you believe that just because you haven’t seen it yourself, it doesn’t exist, eh?”

He heard a voice.

It felt like something that was said to him a few days ago—or was it a few months ago? It might even have been a few years ago. The flow of time was vague. He felt terribly sleepy.

Whatever the case, this should just be a recollection of some sort, a playback of a past conversation in his mind, but...

“Indeed, the only information that you can access is what you can get through those sensors. You can only experience the world as others have defined it,” the voice in the memory muttered.

Despite the awfully disjointed sentences, the voice had a strangely realistic feeling to it.

“That is why, while there are those who doubt the existence of love or God, there are none who doubt the existence of money and power—because their existence need hardly be proved. It is self-evident.”

Suddenly, a doubt arose in Halter’s mind.

Vainney Halter didn’t believe in fate.

He had been this way ever since the day he first stood on the battlefield as a living boy long, long ago—actually, probably even before then—and still to this very moment

He had made it through countless battlefields and created countless fields of emptiness out of them.

That was the raw reality he had faced.

That there’s no meaning in truth—

And so, naturally, Vainney Halter didn’t believe in God.

“So long as you don’t doubt that—”

In that case.

—On what basis should Vainney Halter define himself?

Suddenly, his vision came back.

Perceiving the bullet rapidly closing in on him, Halter promptly moved to evade it.

“I, Impossible— How did he reboot?!” an enemy cried.

I can feel my limbs again. My left arm is lightly damaged. The shock absorbers on my feet aren’t working, but that’s ignorable for now. Shutting down FCS and switching to manual aim. All sensors destroyed— Hm? Wait, then how am I sensing all this?

Questions arose in Halter’s mind, but for now, he continued to inspect his condition.

Power efficiency is suboptimal with output at 57%—good enough to fight with.

“I, Impossible!”

“Lee! What’s going on! Shouldn’t that EMP have put him out of commission?!”

“A cyborg that can move after being hit by an EMP— What?!”

...He heard voices he shouldn’t have been able to hear.

Not only that, his vision was sharper than usual. It felt almost as if his entire body had turned into visual sensors, pulling in light from all around him.

Overflowing information surged into his brain like a tsunami. He might lose his sense of self if he didn’t continue thinking—earlier it was because of a lack of sensory input, but now it was because of an overflow of sensory input. It felt like omnipotence.

—Hmm, this doesn’t feel too bad.

“He did shut down at one point! If nothing else, all his sensors at least should have been destroyed!”

“Fool! Then just how is he moving right now?!”

—Great point. I’d love to know myself.

But this body is definitely working. That fact is all that matters right now.

Halter began to sprint.

Despite being in the silent darkness of sensory deprivation, he was still able to clearly perceive the enemy, somehow.

—He charged.

Like how he was able to maintain his ego inside that state of emptiness that he had experienced many a time.

Right now, he could believe without a doubt in the existence of his own soul, despite it being an unobservable entity.

—He threw out his fist.

With a motion that he had repeated some tens of thousands of times up to now, his iron fist smashed down an enemy.

He could tell what had happened without even seeing it.

“—K, Kill him!” the enemy commander screamed.

“Fire! Blow him out of this worlddd——ngh!!”

Halter was aware that his brain was working far faster than normal right now.

It wasn’t just the usual 64% from cyborg enhancements. It might be 100%, 200%, or even—infinitely faster.

His artificial body moved with terrifying precision and speed.

He perceived the crossfire coming at him from all directions and dodged it. It wasn’t that he saw it—his visual sensors weren’t working. To begin with, there wouldn’t have been enough time to dodge them by relying on sight.

So what was going on, then?

—Halter knew.

Don’t get bogged down trying to force yourself to see things that can’t be seen. That just complicates things unnecessarily.

Just assume that you do see it, that it is there.

All you have to do is choose the reality that you want to see.

“—There are countless worlds inside this infinite universe—”

That’s what it means to exceed your limits.

As a matter of fact, despite the fact that the power output of his body was deteriorating, his reaction speed and performance were continuing to reach new heights.

Halter realized.

There’s “something” in this universe that only a human brain can perceive.

It is what Naoto Miura listens for when he covers his ears.

And it seems that Marie Bell Breguet can now see it as well when she closes her eyes.

In that case—what about someone who isn’t a genius? An average joe? Just how should Vainney Halter, who can only perceive the world as forcefully defined for him by others, look upon reality?

Doubt arose in his mind.

On what basis should Vainney Halter define himself?

I don’t believe in fate, miracles, or magic.

Life, truth, this world—none of them feel significant to me.

I’ve seen people die countless times. I’ve also seen people survive by the skin of their teeth many times. I’ve experienced having hope shattered all too easily, as well as endless despair simply vanishing, countless times.

The cold truth is that both fortune and misfortune are ubiquitous in this world.

Basically, it’s all just like a joke—anything and everything.

And it’s because fortune’s smiled upon me countless times that I’m alive right now.

I’ve had to overcome thousands and thousands of close encounters with death to be standing here today.

Is that unreasonable? Absurd?

But it’s reality. A hard fact.

There might be some reason behind it, some sort of unfathomable existence that intervened with my life. You want to call that God? Fine. But I won’t accept that explanation myself.

—Then, what should I believe in? What explanation should I accept? For someone who, right now, has lost all of his five senses and can’t confirm the existence of anything?

He found the answer.

Vainney Halter—what defines you is simply the strength of your will.

Halter pulled out a knife from his belt.

He glided forward one step. His movement felt relaxed, casual, even.

In front of him were three cyborg soldiers pointing guns at him.

They fired.

He perceived the trajectories of the bullets. Only three would hit him if he stayed his course. He could ignore the rest. He raised his knife up near his eyes and sprinted. As the first bullet came—he blocked it with the ultra-hard blade of his knife.

Ding! Sparks flew out. His awareness grew sharper. He reflexively flung his arm and smacked down the second bullet before his conscious mind caught up to the action. He wouldn’t be able to swing again in time to deflect the third one, though.

He immediately extended his arm out straight towards the trajectory of the bullet—no, actually slightly angled away. The bullet landed. It was armor-piercing ammo that would easily penetrate his armor with a direct hit. But because it struck at an angle, it ran right along his arm and past his shoulder, though it did tear up his artificial skin.

“Wha—?!”

Halter perceived the enemy goggling in astonishment. Not planning to let this opening go to waste, he kicked off another sprint. He closed the distance faster than they could fire again and twisted his body as he plunged at the cyborg in the center.

He slammed his back against the cyborg.

The sound of gears cracking rang out.

The cyborg was blasted away before he could even scream, his entire body distorted as if it had been smashed with a hammer.

Next, a slash attack came at Halter from the left.

It appeared that the cyborg to the left had dropped his gun and pulled out his own knife in response to Halter’s approach. His judgment was correct—but his execution was far too slow and clumsy.

Halter grabbed the cyborg soldier’s arm as it swung at him and pulled it towards him. Instead of fighting against the enemy’s momentum, he twisted his body and directed the enemy’s knife into the chest of the other cyborg to his right.

Finally, he dealt an uppercut to the last cyborg, who was frozen in shock—pulverizing his skull..

“—Fireee!”

Upon that order, a half-broken lightly armored automaton began to move. It was a giant one that stood two and a half meters tall. It was on the large side for a lightly armored model, but its right arm was already gone.

The giant automaton pointed the autocannon on its remaining arm at Halter.

And fired.

Without panicking, Halter dodged to the side a half-step to evade the autocannon’s line of fire. At the same time, he hurled his knife at the automaton with a lightning-quick fling of his arm.

A split second after.

The automaton’s autocannon that had been thundering along just a moment ago came to a stop with a clunk.

Halter’s knife had torn right through the air—and pierced the giant automaton’s head, destroying its sensors.

He ran forward.

Closing the distance in an instant, he tripped the giant by sweeping his foot. Its heavy body toppled right over with a rumble. He then stomped on its exposed neck, crushing it to pieces.

...What’s left?

Perceiving his next target, Halter set forth with an air of calm.

●

“U, Uahhhhhh!”

Losing himself due to fear, Lee began desperately charging at Halter and firing blindly.

With an annoyed look, Halter swung his arm backwards without even turning around. His fist dug deep into Lee’s body before sending him off flying.

...Before Cormack knew it, he was the only one left.

Facing the man who’d turned his subordinates into piles of corpses before him, Cormack muttered, “People make a fuss about the Initial-Y, but if you ask me...”

If he were a weapon with off-the-top capabilities that produced off-the-top results, then that’d only be natural.

Just as it’s only natural that a shell fired from a tank has more destructive power than a bullet fired from a pistol.

Just as a race car built for performance can run faster than regular vehicles.

But just what is this that stands before my eyes supposed to be?

“...your existence is far more unreasonable, you damn monster.”

If a cyborg, a mere human, causes far more havoc on the battlefield than a cyborg should be able to, what is he if not a monster?

—In the first place, you shouldn’t even still be alive!

Cormack didn’t even bother to ready his gun anymore as he simply glared at the reaper of death that was approaching him.

...He had been an excellent commander in his time.

He was a fast thinker with a discerning eye, who possessed both skills and courage.

But at the same time, he was an extremely practical man, which was why he couldn’t comprehend the man before him.

That he could simply see the world as he wanted to.

That he could attain infinite potential with just his own will, despite being a mere human.

That a man who had lost all connection to the external world could put up such results with just that one conviction in his heart—

Cormack couldn’t comprehend it, down to his very last moments.

●

It was right around sundown when the battle came to its conclusion.

“...Ugh, tsss...” TemP muttered in pain as she fell to her knees.

She was no longer enshrouded by light. Having chewed through the energy stored in her spring, she could no longer maintain her inherent ability.

With some difficulty—she straightened her back and looked up at the girl covered in red and black with hateful eyes.

“Big Sis...” AnchoR muttered, letting out a long breath.

And as if on cue, her black horns turned back into a white ring, her long red hair into short black hair, her red claws into silver gauntlets—she returned to her normal state from her demon-like form.

Standing next to her, RyuZU said, “You held on longer than I expected, TemP.”

“Humph... What, trying to rub it in?”

“That is not my intention.”

It was the truth.

TemP had continued fighting for far longer than RyuZU had expected—her calculations had been based on her memory and records of TemP’s data. At the very least, it’d be fair to say that TemP wouldn’t have been able to put up such a tough fight two hundred years ago against her and AnchoR.

—She’s grown.

In that case,

—It might not be absolutely impossible that, at the end of her growth, she regains herself.

However, at the moment it didn’t seem all that likely, as TemP shot her a sulky glare.

“So...? What are you going to do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“...Are you tormenting me now? A bit in poor taste, I must say.”

TemP slumped her shoulders, looking fed up, but then hung her head down.

“You were going to destroy me, were you not? Though it pains me to death to admit it, I lost. So go ahead, I will not resist unseemingly—just do it already, would you please?”

“Could it be that you actually want to die, TemP?” RyuZU asked calmly.

“What is this now? In the end, I am just a failure of a little sister to you, am I not?! Or are you implying that disposing of a defective product like me is not even worth your—”

“—Don’t say that, Big Sis.”

Seeing TemP beginning to lose herself to rage, AnchoR cut in.

“AnchoR—?”

“You mustn’t say such a thing...”

Picking up TemP’s hand, AnchoR continued, “...You see, Big Sis RyuZU actually loves Big Sis TemP. And of course, I do too.”

Being told that right to her face, TemP pulled her lips tight, shaking her head.

“Th—That’s a lie! Then why does she try to destroy me?! It is because she hates me and sees me as an eyesore, is it not?!”

“She didn’t try to destroy you. She wanted to save you.”

“From what?!” TemP yelled.

“From regret,” AnchoR answered briefly, then said, “You know, Big Sis... To be honest, I had it wrong too.”

Upon those words, TemP looked straight into AnchoR’s face and asked, “...Gotten what wrong?”

“Because I was made to destroy... I thought that was the only thing I could do,” she replied, her voice sounding murky, cold, and lifeless.

“...I hated that. It was so painful. I felt desperate. Even games I used to love playing didn’t feel fun anymore. If things had gone on like that, I would surely have ended up doing something that I would regret one day.”

“AnchoR...”

“...But I was wrong!”

Suddenly, her voice came back to life. With the smile of an angel, she continued, “Father taught me that my power to destroy is really the power to fix things. The power to give things that have become twisted a chance to be reborn—that isn’t violence, but strength!”

Placing her hand on her chest, she declared in a loud voice, “That’s why I decided! That I would become strong. If my power lets me save the ones I love, then it isn’t a bad thing at all. I’m okay with being the ultimate weapon now.”

TemP asked with a trembling voice, “...Are you saying... that I am also mistaking something?”

“I think so.”

“Just what could it be that I’m mistaking...?”

AnchoR shook her head. “...I think that’s something that you have to figure out for yourself, Big Sis TemP.”

TemP became more and more confused.

“I... am mistaken? But I am free...” she said, hugging her shoulders in fear as her eyes darted about... before suddenly lifting her head and shouting, “No—Th, That is right! After all, my master also said that I am fine like this! I have not mistaken anything!!”

Shooting her frayed little sister a cold gaze, RyuZU muttered with a sigh, “...So not only is your brain loose, but also your morals?”

“Because Master said so”—that’s your only basis for blindly believing that you’re right?

...I think that makes you what they call an “easy score.”

First she was just exasperated, but what followed that was indignation.

So basically, it seems that this little sister of mine has been wheedled along by her master, most likely the man that revealed himself during the events in Tokyo—“Omega.”

Furthermore, it seems he does not even value her much, despite making use of her.

...First it was AnchoR, now TemP—

“To dare treat my little sisters as girls only good for hitting and quitting... You certainly have got some nerve.”

I will definitely make you regret it, RyuZU thought, reaffirming the man whose face was yet unknown to her as a bitter enemy.

Meanwhile, despite TemP’s continuing outbursts, AnchoR persevered with patience in her efforts.

“Big Sis, you should come with us.”

“Hah? Me, go with you...?”

“AnchoR, that—” RyuZU interjected chidingly.

However, AnchoR did not back down. Gazing straight into TemP’s eyes, she said, “Let’s try asking Father and Mother for advice together, yeah? If you’re lost, just say so. I’m sure that talking with them will help you find an answer...”

“Help, me...?”

“Yeah. Father would definitely—”

“That person would...” TemP muttered in a daze.

Immediately after.

—Poof. For some reason, her face instantly flushed beet red as her head overheated like a steaming kettle.

TemP proceeded to stand up, shaking off AnchoR’s hand.

“T-T, That is just fine, thank you!”

She fumbled her feet as she retreated and shook her head fiercely back and forth.

“If I were to join up with a person who acts in such a way upon meeting someone for the first time, my sanity wouldn’t last! How lecherous he was!!”

...Acts? In such a way? Upon first meeting? Lecherous?

Questions popped into RyuZU’s head, but before she could ask, TemP continued, “I—I shall leave it here for today! But do not think that it is over now! I shall return the humiliation I have suffered a thousand times over!”

After spitting out a line that only a sore loser would say, TemP quickly spun around.

And just like that, she vanished.

It appeared that she had used the small amount of energy that she had recovered during their conversation just now to turn herself transparent.

RyuZU might be able to catch her if the nature of her invisibility was indeed simple optical camouflage, but she didn’t even feel like trying anymore at this point.

AnchoR was also staring vacantly at the spot where her older sister had just vanished.

“...I wonder what’s wrong with her?”

“Well, who knows what happened.”

“Did I say something I shouldn’t have...?”

“No, I think you did the best you could.”

“But......... Ah.”

Upon turning around and looking up at RyuZU, AnchoR was taken aback, her face stiffening.

...She looked like she just saw the devil.

“Now then, let us hurry to Master Naoto’s side. There is something that I must get an answer for right away. For TemP to react that way, just what kind of stunt was he pulling while I was so worried about him being alone in the enemy base? —Yes, I would be quite curious to know indeed.”

“...Your face says everything, Big Sis...”

Looking up at RyuZU, who had an unspeakable look on her face, AnchoR sighed with her eyes half-closed.

●

“...Halter did all this by himself?” Marie muttered in a daze upon surveying the ruins of the plaza in front of the ninth clock tower.

—This is ridiculous.

Even by a conservative estimate, there’s at least a battalion’s worth of dead soldiers and cyborgs, as well as the wreckage of military automata, lying on the ground.

Just what kind of magic would enable a single man to create a scene that looks like something straight from hell?

Vermouth bumped Marie with his elbow, saying, “Oy, Missy—he’s over there.”

“gh, Halter!”

Marie dashed off like a billiard ball that had been struck.

Right around the center of the ruins was a familiar-looking figure.

But instead of his usual suit, the bald man was clad in thick combat armor that was all beat up. He was sitting with his back reclined against the rubble, looking completely exhausted.

There’s no mistaking it. That’s Halter.

As she became certain of who it was upon getting closer, Marie yelled out, “Halter! You— ...Halter?”

Her voice shriveled up. She had been ready to slap him, with her hand raised and all, but then realized that something was wrong. She shook his shoulder... but there was no response.

“Oy, Boss! You still alive or what?!” Vermouth yelled out anxiously as he caught up with Marie.

Marie took out some of her tools and examined Halter’s condition. He had apparently shut down.

“...The damage to his body isn’t really that bad.”

The damage to his armor is proof that it was put to good use. His internal mechanisms do look like they’ve been considerably overworked as well, but they aren’t damaged enough to cause a shut down.

“Oy slut, how does it look?!”

“Quiet! —He hasn’t suffered fatal damage. In fact, he’s practically unscathed, considering that he apparently cleaned up everyone here by himself.”

“Then why isn’t he responding? It can’t be that he’s just sleeping again, right?”

“That’s what I’m looking into right now. ...Wait, all of his sensors are broken?! You’re kidding me, just what kind of weapon could have broken them in such a way?”

Clicking her tongue, Marie pulled out another tool.

While tuning his internal mechanisms with her eyes focused, she grumbled, “Oh no, they’ve been magnetized... An electromagnetic weapon, again? Really? God, electricity’s just the absolute worst!”

“Oy oy, can he be fixed?”

“If I replace some parts later, yeah. For now, I’m just making some emergency repairs... Done!”

The second Marie said that, Halter’s shoulders jumped.

“Phoo...”

Exhaust gas came out of his mouth as he started to show signs of life. He slowly began to move, straightening up.

Halter then shook his head to dispel the lingering drowsiness, then looked up at Marie.

“Hey there... Princess.”

“Good morning,” she replied in a threatening voice. She pulled her lips that had loosened in relief tight again and folded her arms as she looked down at Halter with a high and mighty attitude.

“You sure went around making quite the mess, didn’t you.”

“Yeah, I guess. ...Are you mad at me?”

“Of course I am. Did you seriously think that I wouldn’t be? I’m neither an angel nor a saint. Oh you stupid little dummy, is this head of yours really holding anything inside?” Marie replied as she prodded his forehead lightly with her small fist.

Halter pouted like a child might when chided for his mischief. “You’re so mean. I tried my absolute best, you know?”

“Were there no other options?”

“This is how a proper adult settles things. Have I taught you something?”

“Why don’t you start by telling me how you’re defining ‘proper.’”

“Alright, I’ll revise my statement. This isn’t how a proper adult settles things, but how a bad adult does. It was educational, right?”

“Yes, and as I understand it, it’s not so different from a selfish brat’s pranks,” she replied while giving him the stink eye.

To which Halter chuckled, his shoulders rocking up and down. Then he said, “Sorry, Marie.”

“Don’t think I’ll let you off easy. I’m hurt. Very hurt.”

“Sorry.”

“I won’t forgive you. —I’ll never forgive you,” she whispered as she cast her face downward.

God damn it, Marie thought, I want to let him have it right now, but my voice won’t stop trembling—

As Marie buried her face in the sleeve of her coat, Vermouth called out from behind her, “Hey Boss, good work.”

“Yeah. Same goes for you—you did well.”

“It’s nothing compared to what you did.”

Vermouth smiled and winced, and then took another look at their surroundings.

As he imagined the ferocious battle the man before him must have fought to create such a hellacious scene, he muttered, “I think you could seriously go toe to toe with even an Initial-Y, Boss.”

—He had subjugated an entire battlefield, alone.

Vermouth understood just what an absurd, bone-chilling fact that was.

Tactics can never overcome preplanned strategy. Perhaps that was possible once upon a time, but battles nowadays are decided before they even begin—that’s common sense in modern warfare.

But... the sight of this makes me doubt that common sense.

I can’t help but believe that he just might end up pulling off the impossible whenever I’m watching him.

I mean, isn’t he exactly how mythical heroes are portrayed in their legends?

At the very least, this was what Vermouth thought.

—If he had no choice but to pick one to encounter on the battlefield, he’d rather it be an Initial-Y than Vainney Halter.

However—

“Don’t be stupid,” the legendary man said, cutting him right down. “This is nothing to brag about. I simply won a winnable fight. And if anything, I’d rather exhaust all means to avoid ending up in a fight with an Initial-Y in the first place.”

“A winnable fight, huh...” Vermouth muttered dubiously. “If you could arrange things so that you win a battle you should have had no chance of winning, wouldn’t it also be possible for you to set up a stage where you could take down an Initial-Y? That’s what I was saying.”

“Now you’re really being dumb,” Halter said. “I sure as hell ain’t gonna break my back trying to set up such an extravagant stage. You might still be young, but I’m an old man already. It’s about time you allow these old bones to rest—the absolute combat machine Overwork retires as of today.”

“...Oh, is that right,” Vermouth muttered as he sneered internally.

“A winnable fight”— If you insist on challenging a royal straight flush with a no pair hand, then well, fine I guess. That’s what makes you the master.

But in the first place, is this man even aware?

That while he barked about how he sure as hell ain’t gonna go through that kind of trouble—he didn’t say a single thing about it being impossible.

“...He’s fallen under their spell for sure,” Vermouth muttered, feeling a little exasperated, but also smiling.

Well, I can kinda understand. When you’re around these kids... you just feel like you can do it.

Calling anything impossible just doesn’t feel quite right anymore.

It’s different from groundless optimism. It’s more like you start to not want to admit that something is impossible even if it is—

“Sure is tough for an average joe to keep up with geniuses, good grief,” Halter grumbled with a sigh, sounding completely depleted.

Vermouth couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“If you’re an average joe, then what does that make the rest of us?”

●

—Let us speak now of what happened afterwards.

Well, there’s really no need to elaborate much on the obvious, though.

Naoto Miura gained control over the core tower, and Marie Bell Breguet entered the ninth clock tower.

Second Ypsilon gained total control over the core tower and the clock towers of Shangri-La Grid.

As a result—it was widespread knowledge throughout the world that they now had the power to do anything they wanted in that city.

But what really struck everyone was what they chose to do with that newfound power—

The residents of the city, the militaries of the IGMO countries that had invaded, and the leadership of the five surrounding countries all directly received the answer to that question—

—In the form of a proclamation of criminal responsibility in the style of an instruction manual.

Namely—

“We created direct links between the entirety of Shangri-La Grid’s control system to its neighboring grids, man! Shangri-La’s core tower can now be controlled via the corresponding clock towers nearest to the border of its five neighboring grids, so treat it well, m’kay loves ♪?”

To begin with, neighboring grids supported each other in their day-functioning.

By making the linking mechanisms between Shangri-La Grid and its neighbors from the ninth clock tower both bigger and more sophisticated—they had effectively turned Shangri-La Grid into a multiple grid system with its neighbors.

It was no longer possible to reverse the changes that Naoto had made to Shangri-La Grid’s control system.

After all, he had only done inexplicable things in a trance until he had burned out—he couldn’t recall why anything was the way it was now. Of course, Marie couldn’t understand either, as she only hooked up what he had created.

As such—there was no one in the world who could restore it to its previous state.

And so, Shangri-La Grid’s sovereignty was forcefully relinquished to the joint management of the five neighboring grids.

There were extremely few in the present world who could understand how this abnormality might have been created.

After all, even the ones responsible didn’t have a good grasp of it themselves—