Chapter Four / 19 : 30 / Conquistador

The air crackled as it shook.

Assaulted by the fierce impact, Naoto was thrown out of his chair and tumbled onto the ground. His body stiffened as he groveled on the floor. Standing up would be impossible.

—Even in the present day where the entire planet had been reproduced by gears, there were still earthquakes.

Those frequently occurring micro-tremors just barely perceptible to humans were the result of the city mechanism expelling the pressure that had built up in its systems.

However, this shaking wasn’t something so simple.

The shock was of such magnitude that it felt as if space and time itself was being violently rocked. It was enough to make one think that the city was going to be smashed into smithereens if things continued like this.

The cupboard by the café lounge’s counter had collapsed.

The gigantic chandelier in the hotel’s lobby had fallen.

Cars on the boulevard in front of the hotel had collided in a line like billiard balls.

One after another, thunderous roars and explosions made it through Naoto’s headphones and into his ears.

Meanwhile, the quaking still showed no signs of stopping.

And that’s when Naoto saw it.

A teacup had been blown right off the table, yet it didn’t fall to the floor; instead, it was floating in the air. The contents that had spilled out had split into big drops of water and were also gently drifting.

...What is this?!

As if to answer Naoto’s question, Marie yelled, “A gravitational disorder...!”

Marie had crawled under the table and was lying face down on the floor. Next to her, Halter, who had thrust just his head underneath the table (because he was too big), exclaimed in a fluster, “Don’t tell me that the collapse has already begun?!”

“Halter, how much time is left?!”

“Seven hours and twelve minutes—There should still be plenty of time...”

Marie’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me that the military expedited the purge...!”

“No, calm down. If it’s true that they’ve come to an agreement with Meister Guild’s leaders, then they won’t try to bury our Meisters along with the city.”

“Even so, an omen of this scale should be outside their calculations. If the pandemonium spreads, we can’t rule out the possibility that they’ll take firm measures against it...!”

A short while after, the quaking settled down.

Even so, a numbing sense of foreboding markedly lingered in the air, as if lightning were about to strike.

Driving the cries and angry bellows he could hear from afar into the corner of his mind, Naoto stood up.

And then Marie addressed him. “You—”

“—Huh?”

“You, what’s your name?”

Serious-looking emerald eyes stared straight at Naoto.

Unable to ignore her, Naoto answered, “...It’s Naoto. Naoto Miura.”

Hearing that, Marie let out a deep sigh.

She looked down, hanging her head before raising it back up with a look of resolve. “Very well, Naoto. As I mentioned earlier, my name is Marie. I won’t admit that you’re a better clocksmith than I am even if it kills me, but—”

Her words were cut off. Before she knew it, RyuZU was standing behind her with a threatening look on her face.

With a tight smile, Marie continued, “B, But because my life is dear to me, I’ll admit it! Listen, okay? Humility and modesty are unnecessary, so answer me clearly. Do you possess even the slightest potential to do something about this situation?!”

Naoto was at a loss for words. “That’s...”

“He can.” RyuZU immediately replied for him.

She turned to Marie and continued indifferently, “Based on what you have told me, the essential problem you have should not be ‘There is not enough time’ but ‘The source of malfunction cannot be located.’”

After hesitating a bit, Marie said, “...Well, you could say that too, but aren’t they the same thing?”

“It is a difference of heaven and earth. Conversely, as long as the cause can be located, then there is no problem.”

Marie wavered a little again before nodding. “You’re right. If the source is located, then things would be in the bag, but...”

“In that case, there is no problem whatsoever—Master Naoto.”

“W, What?”

“You should already know. The origin of this city’s disorder—the source of the sound.”

Marie tilted her head. “Sound?”

Well, if it’s just that...

Naoto nodded.

“But, it should be no surprise that I can’t tell exactly where it is like this... I’d have to actually go to the twenty-fourth floor for that.”

“Wai—wait a second!” Marie cried out. She questioned Naoto, “How do you know that the twenty-fourth floor is where the problem is?!”

“Wha?”

Naoto looked befuddled as Marie pressed him so vigorously it looked like she was going to bite him. “Neither Halter nor myself said anything about the current repair site being the twenty-fourth floor. So how do you, who hasn’t ever even entered the core tower, know that?!”

“How, you ask...?” Naoto said with a blank look on his face. “—Obviously because dissonance is coming from around there.”

“—Hah...?”

“I had thought that it was really annoying, making that racket all the time, but then it got really bad two days ago, so I was convinced that the military guys were ditching their maintenance work...”

“Two days ago—”

An “Ah,” escaped from Marie’s mouth. She thought back to the gravitational fluctuations that had suddenly occurred before dawn that day.

He noticed that irregularity—the one that took ten members of the observation squad to measure—Wait, dissonance?

Halter stepped forward from Marie’s side and asked cautiously, “Naoto, I want to confirm something with you—In other words, is it like this? Through just sound, you can perceive a disorder seventy kilometers underground from the surface, and with just your ears to boot. Is this what you’re saying?”

“Hm? Yeah, what about it?”

Seeing Naoto nod his head nonchalantly, Marie and Halter froze. They were astonished.

Even though they could understand the meaning of what was said, that only made it unbelievable.

They felt uncertain as to whether the short boy in front of them was really human.

In a trembling voice, Marie yelled, “L—Look here, you! What kind of absurdities do you think you’re saying like it’s nothing?!”

“I mean, even you guys can pinpoint it this far, can’t you?” Naoto looked like he wanted to answer “Of course,” for them.

Marie shouted back at him with abandon, “...Yes, that’s right. But it was information that we had to force out of someone from Technical Force, since it took us an entire day to inspect down to only the second floor!”

Naoto tilted his head, his mouth agape. “Why would you do something so troublesome? Ah, was it to make extra sure?”

“Because we couldn’t have found that out if we didn’t do at least that much...” Halter let out a sigh that seemed like it was squeezed out from the bottom of his artificial lungs.

“Hah? I just have ears that are a little sharper than most, you know? You guys should at least also have some parabolic reflectors to gather sound with, right?”

“...Look here, if the analysis could be completed with just sound collectors, no one would be worked up—” Halter groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Hold up.”

Talking over Halter, Marie said with a tense face, “—I just realized. Don’t tell me that those are a pair of noise-canceling headphones?”

“Hm? Yeah they are, what about them?”

“You’re kidding me!” Marie yelled. Her voice had grown hoarse. “You—why are you able to hear us while wearing something like that?!”

“Even if you ask why, well, because it was cheap I guess?” Naoto scratched his cheek as if he was unsure before continuing, “I don’t really listen to things like music, but it’s more relaxing when things are quiet, so...”

“—They give me peace of mind,” he added.

Marie glared at him and pressed, “—Peace of mind? Nowadays, even any cheap product should make good on being ‘100% soundproof.’”

“Even if you say that, I really do hear you.”

“I’m saying that that’s weird! You know that you’re cutting out all information that enters through the ears right now?! Just what are you saying you ‘hear’ like that?!”

“I, I mean, you say that, but...”

“.........No, never mind. It doesn’t seem like you’re lying.”

Marie let out the largest sigh she could. Then, to make sure, she continued, “In short, you can tell the source of irregularities by just listening to their sounds. If we take you with us to the twenty-fourth floor, you’d be able to identify the point of malfunction. As long as you can do that for us, we can manage to do something about the rest—Are you fine with me construing things this way?”

As Marie looked at him, Naoto scratched his head as if troubled.

—He understood that she was placing her expectations on him.

It was just that, to Naoto, this was an unfamiliar sensation—it might even be the first time he’d felt something like this. Because of that, he was unable to simply give an immediate reply.

Sounding unconfident, he answered, “Ah—.... Before you become disappointed in me, I want to mention beforehand that I’m just a high school student, that fumbling with machines is just my hobby, and that I’m a total amateur who isn’t even an apprentice, much less an actual clocksmith.”

“Thanks for the depressing information.” Marie groaned, closing her eyes halfway as she shrugged. “I don’t know you, but I do know how complicated RyuZU’s design is. If you fixed her; if you’re saying that you found the fault in her with your ears, then that’s all that matters. I’ll believe in that reality.”

Naoto stayed silent.

After thinking a bit, he properly faced the blond-haired girl in front of him for the first time.

He asked, “...Tell me, why would you do so much?”

They could hear screaming outside that sounded like it was coming from the lowest level of hell.

There’s no reason whatsoever for me to stay in this city now that I know it’s going to be purged. To be honest, I want to get the heck out of here already.

“According to what you’ve said, you’re surrounded in all directions by enemies and the future looks hopelessly bleak. Why aren’t you running away?”

Naoto thought that that was what most people would decide to do in her situation.

—However,

“I’m someone who hates thinking that something’s impossible,” Marie stated. “There’re limits, no doubt, but setting them myself and giving up on my own? No thanks. I’ve come this far by constantly challenging someone, whether it be Father, Elder Sister, or myself in becoming a Meister.”

Naoto couldn’t understand her thought process. “...Why?”

“Because this world is a challenge. —Our planet died a thousand years ago. It had reached its limits and come to an end. But because there were clocksmiths who challenged themselves, we are alive today.”

Marie smiled sweetly and continued, “Things that are irreplaceable always lie beyond one’s limit. That’s why I don’t want to give up. If I run away here—I could never be proud of myself again.”

“......”

“That’s why,” Marie whispered, as if making a wish, “Please—lend me your hand.”

Naoto didn’t answer her.

The boy who was born an ordinary person, grew up at the bottom of society, and had lived his life up to now savoring the bitter taste of reality, and—

The girl who was born a genius, had her talents polished, and had lived her life up to now hoisting noble ideals.

The two of them were water and oil.

For the two of them to come to understand each other in this short time was hopeless; their values were separated by a gulf that was far too large.

“......”

Naoto believed that if this city was going to collapse, he and RyuZU should get the heck out of here already.

Fortunately—or perhaps not, they were homeless right now. It made no difference where they went.

To begin with, even if I were to trust this incomprehensible creature called Marie and bring RyuZU along with me to a do-or-die situation like that, just what would be in it for me?

“...Sorry, but—”

“Ah—Master Naoto. I have something I would like to report,” RyuZU spoke up, interrupting him as he was trying to refuse Marie’s plea. “As I am but Master Naoto’s follower, I was troubled over whether I should mention this, but...” began RyuZU, glancing in the direction of the core tower through the window before continuing quietly, “If she has not been moved, at the bottom of Kyoto’s core tower should be... my younger sister.”

—Thump.

Naoto felt his heart pound vigorously.

He stopped breathing for a moment as the word that RyuZU had uttered echoed in his head many—no, countless times over.

—Yanger sistur... younger, sister... younger sister... Eh? Younger sister...?

“Younger, sis...ter?”

Naoto staggered and clung to the table that had tumbled to its side next to him as he looked up at RyuZU.

—RyuZU’s... younger sister.

At the bottom of the core tower?

In other words, here in Kyoto?

In this city that’s on the brink of collapsing in a purge and sinking down into the dead planet below?

His lungs sought oxygen savagely, and he felt an illusory sensation run through him, like his blood had reversed its flow.

“...In other words, that is to say...”

Naoto tried his best to feign composure somehow by taking deep breaths, but it just made his panting louder.

However, his valiant efforts were negated by his shrill voice as he exclaimed, “An, An, An automaton made after RyuZU?!”

“Yes. The Second of the Initial-Y Series, AnchoR ‘the one who destroys,’ should be there.”

“W-W, Wait, in other words, umm, an automaton... more advanced... than RyuZU?”

RyuZU furrowed her eyebrows. “—There is no automaton with greater overall functionality than me, but I have capable younger sisters who possess abilities that exceed my own under specific situations and whom the inferior creature that is man cannot even hope to compare to.”

Naoto staggered to his feet.

His body temperature was flaring and his blood pressure was skyrocketing with such force that it felt like his blood vessels would rupture.

“Err, umm. Could I ask you something just to be sure?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Umm... was it ‘AnchoR’? ......What kind of girl is she?”

“Let me think. She has pretty black hair in a bob-cut, and though she has visible white beneath her iris, her pupils are a vivid red. In terms of human appearances, I would say that she looks to be about twelve years old. She’s about a hundred forty centimeters tall at most and has trouble expressing emotion. True to her title of ‘the one who destroys,’ she possesses the strongest mobile fighting ability and armaments of all automa—”

“—Hm? Whaaat are we just sitting around for? Let’s get going!” Naoto straightened his back with a snap and raised his fist high into the air. Sounding determined, he declared, “If there is even a slight chance that someone like me possesses the means to save twenty million lives, then we mustn’t let go of that chance! After all, I suspect that that’s—my destiny!”

Naoto spoke forcefully. Unlike before, his eyes were now full of radiance, like they were burning with passion.

His emotions were typically called ‘ulterior motives’ and ‘selfish desire.’

However, people—especially women; in other words, Marie—didn’t know.

That men can risk their lives for transient emotions like that.

That men are foolish, yet noble creatures like that.

“...Say, princess. Is it really a good idea to count on these guys...?” Halter whispered to Marie.

“Could you not ask...?” Marie groaned as she shook her head.

●

Once Naoto decided to go to the core tower, the group of four began to advance briskly through the corridors of the hotel.

They were heading for the underground parking lot. Naoto and RyuZU were told that Halter had a car parked there. They cut through the lobby, which was in a state of pandemonium from the chandelier falling down, and entered the stairway.

There, Halter stopped and turned around.

“Now then, first, what should we do about them? Though we already know, there’ll be nuisances trying to hinder us so long as we try to head to the core tower,” Halter said, squinting one eye ever so slightly as he glanced suggestively at the wall.

Understanding what Halter was alluding to with his gaze, Marie nodded. “...We need to do something about that. If we’re captured on our way to the core tower, the staff left underground might be taken hostage.” She sighed and shrugged in irritation.

Naoto spoke up from beside her. “What now? Aren’t we gonna head to the core tower?”

“Yes, we are.”

“There’s no time, right? So let’s get going.”

“...I’m telling you that at the moment, we’re thinking about what to do from here so we get to the core tower safely. Understand?” Marie clicked her tongue in displeasure.

Seeing her reaction, Naoto tilted his head and looked puzzled. “Are you referring to those guys keeping watch on us over there? Are they really a problem that we have to stop moving for?”

Hearing a keen observation out of Naoto made Marie furrow her eyebrows sourly. “...If you’ve already noticed, then could you use your brain a bit more? Do you think they’re only here to watch us and they’ll just silently see us off as we leave?”

“Well, I mean,” Naoto continued as he looked up at Halter’s giant frame. “This old man is a cyborg soldier, and RyuZU is here as well. Aren’t we good if we just dispose of them before they send out communications?”

Halter smiled wryly, somewhat taken back. “...Now that you’re on board, you’ve become awfully aggressive, eh, mister.”

Marie let out a sigh before saying in a subdued voice, “If we could, I’d want to do that as well. But this isn’t such a simple problem. Politics are involved. The military’s clocksmiths may be incompetent, but their ability to organize effectively is—”

“I’m not talking about that. When all is said and done, what are you trying to do? Play political house?”

“—Ngh.”

Marie raised her fist at Naoto—then stopped herself. She glared at him with her pair of blazing, emerald eyes as her body trembled all over with anger.

Her voice loaded with indignation she wouldn’t be able to conceal even if she tried, Marie spat out, “...Just what could you know.”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking, isn’t it?” Naoto replied. “This stuff about politics and organization, is it more important than the urgent mission of going to the core tower and repairing it?”

With a sunny expression.

Without any other considerations whatsoever.

Without any bonds or fetters, possible precisely because he was just an ordinary citizen.

The boy who had resolved to act freely for nothing but his own desires stated his concise and straightforward philosophy:

“—Frankly, isn’t everything aside from that simply ‘whatever’?”

——

Marie closed her eyes and turned her brandished fist toward the wall, punching it mightily.

After that, she let out a grand sigh before turning to the giant man standing next to her and saying, “Halter.”

“Yo.”

“To lose an argument to someone like—someone like this dimwit is mortifying beyond belief. What am I supposed to do with all this frustration within me?”

“Hey, don’t call me a dimwit.”

Ignoring Naoto’s protest, Marie continued, “But I’ll still ask. Looking at things fairly, who’s right?”

“Who knows... Well, if you’re looking for an argument an adult would find sound, you’re probably in the right, princess.” Halter stroked his chin and shrugged his shoulders. “—But, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a brats agreeing with each other as brats do, you know? Cleaning up after brats is a job for an old man like me, after all.”

...Brat, Marie muttered inside her mouth before nodding. “Oh—I see. Now that you mention it, I am a brat, aren’t I.”

“Yep, you aren’t even a clocksmith right now; you’re just a sheltered, cheeky little princess, no?” Halter grinned broadly. He extended his bulky palm towards her and teasingly asked, “Will you give me some work to do, Marie?”

“...I suppose.” Marie nodded lightly as she smiled bitterly.

From her side, RyuZU interjected coldly, “Is everything settled then? As we speak, precious time is being squandered. May I expect you to have the ability to at least reflect on that?”

“I know already. ...I’m going to ask just in case: I can count you as part of our combat force, yes?”

To Marie’s question, RyuZU smiled gracefully as she curtsied and said, “Slashing down obstacles blocking the path of Master Naoto’s will is my job.”

Marie nodded at RyuZU; next, she turned back towards Naoto. “Naoto, after running your big mouth to the great Marie Bell Breguet like that, you’d better lend a hand as well.”

“Let me just say beforehand that I’m super bad at fighting.”

“I’m not expecting anything from you in that department. More importantly—” Marie placed her hands on her hips and threw a challenging glance at Naoto. “Your ‘talent’ that RyuZU mentioned—I’ll have you show it to us, got it?”

Naoto nodded and quietly let out a small sigh.

Then, he slowly removed his cheap, fluorescent-green headphones.

Immediately after,

—Noise so colossal it was nauseating assaulted him and made Naoto stumble forward.

“Ghh...ngh.” He grimaced, clenching his teeth. He felt as if everything around him was crawling into his ears.

It must have been because of the gravitational fluctuation. There were not only the sounds of malfunctions ringing from the city’s gears, but also of the damage being caused by the fluctuation and of the hysteria of the people. Together, they reached Naoto’s ears as a blasphemous symphony.

“Master Naoto.” RyuZU gently supported Naoto, who was about to collapse involuntarily, with her hands. “You’re fine. If it’s Master Naoto—it can be done.”

“Yeah,” Naoto spilled out a sharp breath. “If I couldn’t answer the faith of the world’s greatest automaton, my reputation as a machine geek would be ruined.”

He closed his eyes.

—In the midst of the raging storm of noise was a clear melody in a hidden calm. It was the sound of RyuZU operating. A beautiful, elegant, perfect—and fateful melody.

With RyuZU’s melody as his auditory pillar, Naoto began to pick only the things he needed from the massive stream of information infiltrating his brain.

And then—

“...Now then—Let’s go.”

Naoto began counting them up.

●

Marie descended with an elegant stride down the spiral stairwell as they headed towards the underground parking lot, and Naoto walked gingerly behind her. However, two men showed up standing on the landing ahead so as to block their path. Both were big and brawny, and side by side, they gave off an aura intimidating enough to flatten someone like Marie.

One of the men glared sharply at her and said, “I take it that you’re ex-Meister Marie Bell Breguet?”

Marie grinned, saying, “If I said I’m not, would you believe me?”

The men didn’t laugh.

“We’re from the military. We want to ask you about the disappearance of Ryoji Nijima of Technical Force.”

“I seeeeeeee, so you’re going to use that as the pretext. How well prepared you are.”

One of the men stepped forward and grabbed Marie’s wrist; that instant—

Marie’s body sank.

With a sweep of her foot, she tripped the man who had grabbed her, toppling him, then pulled her foot back and kicked his head as it came falling down from above. It was an intense blow, so much so that the sound of his cranium cracking was audible.

Looking down on the man who had been knocked down unconscious without even getting a word out, Marie clicked her tongue.

“—Who gave you permission to touch me, huh? Know your place, won’t you.”

The other man became enraged and reached out to grab Marie. “You bitch! Do you intend to resist—?!”

Marie brushed his hand away coolly with a simple stroke. She traced an arc with her hand as she followed through, punching the man’s chin with her clenched fist. The man couldn’t help but stumble forward, covering his torso as he lost his footing.

In that instant, Marie danced.

At the end of a sharp spin, she gouged the man’s temple with the heel of her boot using the ample amounts of centrifugal force she had gathered. The blow knocked the large man over, and a thud echoed out as the heavy lump of meat hit the floor.

“——”

Marie landed as her coat fluttered about. Without even taking a look at the men she’d brought down, she fetched a piece of candy from her pocket and tossed it into her mouth, crunching it into pieces. Naoto, who had been watching from behind, reflexively knelt down.

“I’m sorry for the conceited things I said, so please don’t use those moves on me,” Naoto pleaded.

“Good, I’m glad you understand.” Marie nodded, then turned around.

Her gaze was turned towards the corridor at the bottom of the stairwell that led to the parking lot. There, she saw that a military automaton that had gone unnoticed until now.

It was a lightly armed, bipedal model. Its silhouette was close to that of a human, but its arms bulged awkwardly. The muzzle at the end of its right arm was pointed at precisely where they stood.

When she saw the weapon, which could easily turn two living children into mincemeat, Marie’s eyes widened.

“You’re kidding me. It’s almost scary,” she muttered; however, she wasn’t addressing the automaton. Despite currently being exposed to mechanical murderous intent, her face showed no signs of fear. “Halter.”

As if to answer her, Halter leaped down the center of the stairwell.

Boom. The heavy sound of impact thundered.

With the full momentum from his free fall, Halter’s fist smashed into the automaton, greatly mangling its body all the way down to its frame. As it stumbled forward, Halter landed so he was shielding Marie and the others from the automaton’s muzzle.

The automaton instantly recalculated the threat level of the enemy target that had abruptly assaulted it. Judging from the targets’ physical capabilities and the distance between them, the automaton acknowledged that the full-body cyborg soldier was its greatest threat, and as such, turned its muzzle away from where Marie and the rest were.

However, by that time, Halter had already slipped up against the automaton’s chest. Grappling its bulging right arm, he leveraged his own weight in addition to using his full strength and tore it off.

“—!”

Upon being severed, its wires swung down with a jerk, and its gears and springs flew and scattered everywhere.

The automaton retreated as it stumbled —However, Halter crouched down all the way and then kicked off from the floor, sending himself flying towards it.

The automaton swung down its remaining arm as quickly as the blade of a guillotine drops.

The blow would have flattened and burst a human with a body of flesh—but Halter easily stopped it with one hand.

“—,—”

Its upper body jittered. Halter sneered as he pinned down the military automaton operating at full throttle with all his might.

“What a pathetic combat algorithm you’ve got, jeez. Did you really think you could take on a complete cyborg like me with the power of a lightly armed model? —You lookin’ down on me?”

Crack. The automaton’s arm was being crushed flat.

Halter was pinning down the arm with his hand. He squeezed with his fingers, warping its plating, breaking its shaft, and crushing its structural frame.

“You—idiot!”

Immediately after,

Halter stomped down on its body, and massive fissures radiated outward from where his foot landed. Then, after drawing it back all the way, he unleashed his fist. His punch came so quickly that the fragments that had broken off from his stomp hadn’t even flown into the air yet. With all his internal gears working together, Halter smashed through the military automaton’s plating with his fist and destroyed its nucleus, forcing it to shut down. —He tore the central spring out and tossed it onto the ground; the cracked cylinder clattered as it rolled around on the floor.

As Halter tossed the automaton that was now nothing but scrap metal, Marie addressed him from behind. “As expected, Halter. Thanks for your hard work.”

Looking back at the girl walking down the staircase, he shrugged his shoulders. “Not a problem. However—” Glancing at Naoto, Halter spilled out, “Calculating both the number of enemies and their positions this perfectly... Are your ears a sonar system or something like that?”

That’s right—The information that Naoto had gauged with his ears had been frighteningly accurate and precise.

Though Halter couldn’t even begin to comprehend how Naoto could discern who and what bore hostility towards them in the first place, the boy had known everything in advance—the number of enemies, their positions, and even their weapons.

Just how advantageous is that strategically—?

However, the boy in question didn’t answer. Instead, he asked him with a somewhat excited look on his face, “Hey, old man! You’re not just a military cyborg, are you!”

“Oh, you can even tell that much? That’s right. As you can see, I’m a stud on the outside, but I’m just as great on the inside, you know? My body is the ‘Eighth Generation’ model made by the Breguet Corporation.”

“Huh, eighth? The current ones on the market should only go up to the ‘Sixth Generation’...”

“It’s a prototype a generation above the next model to be released on the market. This is as high-end as it gets.” Halter took a pose, flexing his forearms to show off his muscles. “I’m the princess’s bodyguard, so I get to use the Breguet Corporation’s top-secret technology because of my affiliation with her.”

“Hah—! Hey hey, show me what your arm looks like disassembled lat—”

“What are you two men chattering between yourselves for? About disgusting things no less. We’re going already!”

Urged on by Marie, Naoto and Halter shut their mouths.

Walking down the stairs and through the corridor, they exited into the parking lot in no time. A black car was parked right next to the entrance to the corridor. However, when Marie approached the vehicle’s doors—

“Don’t move!” A booming voice echoed from a megaphone and through the underground parking lot. Marie zoned in on where the sound had come from.

A short and stout steel giant appeared as it turned off its optical camouflage. It was blocking the tunnel leading to the surface.

“VS-08 [Goliath]—An armored soldier! Seriously? You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Halter muttered as his face broke out in a cold sweat.

Developed by the Vacheron Corporation, it was a clockwork mobile suit piloted by a live human aboard it. Because of its thoroughly sound-dampened mechanisms, it operated silently, and its thermo-optical camouflage gave it an invisibility function—its trump cards for battles in special environments. It possessed overwhelming power that the lightly armed automaton they had encountered earlier would be no match for even if it ganged up with other automata of the same model. Its cannon could pulverize even the cutting-edge artificial combat body that Halter used.

With a smooth motion, its muzzle turned towards Marie’s group.

—It roared.

●

The report he’d just received on the phone made Limmons swallow his breath.

...What did this clown say just now?

He felt sweat slowly ooze from the palm that was holding the receiver.

“.........Could you repeat that for me one more time?”

“I’m saying, because Marie Bell Breguet and her bodyguard resisted vehemently, I had no choice but to shoot the two of them dead. Aside from them, a civilian was caught up in the combat as well—”

“I don’t care about that!” Limmons clicked his tongue loudly before continuing, “Who gave you permission to kill her?! I believe I told you to restrain them!”

“Yes, however—”

Feeling the irritation within himself boil from the ambiguous reply, Limmons spat out in a low voice, “You guys were borrowing our corporation’s Goliath and you couldn’t even capture what is, at best, a single brat?”

“...With all due respect, to compare the target to an ordinary civilian is a little...”

“She’s just a brat,” he stated sharply. While tapping the phone with his index finger, Limmons curled his lips. “Yes, a brat. That’s all she was in the end. She was but a brat who had quick hands when it came to handling machines at most.”

“Shot her dead, you say... I see, so she died, huh?” Limmons licked his lips as he breathed in and out once. “Considering that you showered her with rounds from Goliath’s machine gun, I take it that her body wasn’t left in one piece, yes?”

His voice seemed to harbor some sort of expectation, and the one reporting answered in the affirmative. “...Yes. As the corpse has been severely mangled, it’ll take a bit of time to confirm its identity—”

Limmons said, “That’s just fine. In that case, dispose of the corpse as is. A written report is unnecessary. The story will be that Marie Bell Breguet was caught up in the city’s collapse and has been missing since then.”

“...Are you sure you’re fine with that?”

“It’ll be a serious problem if it becomes known that the daughter of the Breguets was killed by someone working for the Vacherons. Besides, this city is going to sink in a few hours anyway.”

“Understood.”

And with that, the call ended.

Limmons quietly put down the receiver—then flipped the entire table over.

He glared and ground his teeth as he raved, “Idiots! Those incompetent fools...!!”

Having her die was a problem.

Marie Bell Breguet was supposed to be forced to take the responsibility for the purge hereafter and drown in censure for it, consequently dampening the Breguet family’s influence.

But that could only happen if she was alive.

A dead person couldn’t be made to take responsibility, and the Breguets, their daughter having been killed, would naturally take a hard line. That would go against the script of the Vacheron head house.

“That wretched bitch! Disgracing me even in death...!”

—But above all,

He couldn’t humiliate her if she died so easily. Limmons wanted to ruin Marie Bell Breguet. He couldn’t contain his desire to have been able to see how her face would have distorted after she’d lost both her pride and her reputation.

If he had baited her with promises of restoring her position, or leniency at the hearing, perhaps that haughty girl would have serviced him like a prostitute and cried all the while—a future like that might have been possible, too.

But even a vulgar desire like that was meaningless if the girl was dead. He was full of spite.

Still, there was nothing he could do. He wanted to at least be able to kick her corpse once, but there was no time left for even that at this point. The gravitational anomaly was growing faster and faster, and the time limit until the purge was pressing closer even now.

While spewing foul curses, Limmons headed towards the helipad on the rooftop in haste.

●

—Click.

“...And stop. Are you sure this is what you wanted?” Halter asked as he flicked the recording device’s switch, turning it off.

Marie nodded happily while grinning from ear to ear. “Yes. ‘The daughter of the Breguets was killed by the Vacherons.’ —We were able to catch that on tape without a hitch.”

“To be honest, I think this plan is full of holes...” Halter groaned as he stroked his chin.

“Don’t worry. This voice recording will become the truth. Whatever those pet soldiers of ours say afterwards will only be seen as an attempted cover-up without any credibility whatsoever.”

“If you die, their plan almost completely falls apart... Well, that’d be the case in theory. Still, feigning your own death was quite an idea...” Sighing, Halter discreetly turned his head and glanced at what was behind him: a heap of scraps RyuZU made when she’d deftly dismantled the mobile suits.

Fishing through the wreckage, the boy—Naoto—muttered while looking bored, “This is the feature product of the illustrious Vacherons, one of the Five Great Enterprises...? There isn’t even a hint of artistry.”

Standing beside him, the girl—RyuZU—rebuked Naoto in a whisper.

“Yes. However, Master Naoto—even if it were simply trash, if a child did his best to make something out of building blocks, you would have to praise him, like this: ‘I see that you put a lot of effort into this.’”

While gazing at those two, Halter grumbled, “...Two human soldiers, a lightly armed automaton, a mobile suit, and a communications officer. It was all just like Naoto heard with his ears, wasn’t it? —Still, I thought that the mobile suit had to be a mistake...”

“If it becomes known that the Goliath Stealth the Vacherons are so proud of was seen through so easily, I wonder what their arms development department would think. —Kekekeh, serves them super right♪.”

“You sure look happy...” Halter tossed away the communicator, stood up, and sighed. “As an ex-soldier, I still don’t want to believe it even after a demonstration like that. Just how did he catch even the sounds of dampened mechanisms that were underground?”

“It’s not like there’s any room to doubt him after this though, right? He’s—the real deal.” Marie narrowed her eyes.

—It wasn’t actually impossible in theory.

For example, the animals that were known as “elephants” discerned sounds not with their ears but with their feet.

By stamping their feet, they could sense vibrations in the ground and communicate with faraway comrades. Whether in the earth, the floor, or the air, vibrations are all the same—‘sound’ is essentially vibration, and vibrations interact with anything and everything they touch, causing resonance.

It’s true that the sound of the footsteps—in other words, the vibrations in the air—wouldn’t reach above ground. However, the air would cause resonance in the walls, and the walls would transmit the vibration to the rest of the building.

Based on that principle, animals that can even perceive a coin being dropped several kilometers away definitely exist. Radar and sonar are technologies that were invented by applying those very principles.

However—

Marie threw Naoto a scrutinizing glance.

—Naoto Miura.

He’s “human.” That shouldn’t be the case.

It would make sense that he was still able to hold a conversation even while wearing noise-canceling headphones if he was using his entire body. For example, if he was using his bones to conduct the micro-vibrations of speech to his ears, the logic would check out.

But how was Marie supposed to grasp the fact that someone who could do that not only really existed, but could put it to such good use? There was no way one could dismiss something like this as just someone’s “special talent.”

If Marie were to give a name to something like this based on all the knowledge she had been able to acquire, it would be—a “superpower.”

In this world where everything was composed of gears, this ability and the value it held implied consequences far too heavy for it to be dismissed as just someone’s personal makeup—

“Marie?”

“—Ugh.” Having her name called brought Marie back from the vortex of her thoughts. “Wh... What?”

“Well, you were spacing out, so I was wondering if something was wrong. We need to hurry, right?” Naoto asked as he tilted his head, studying Marie.

“—Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry,” Marie apologized quietly and set her interrupted contemplation in a corner of her mind.

It’s fine for now.

What’s important at the current moment is the fact that this boy Naoto is as just as RyuZU said—an existence worth putting our hopes in. And also...

“...Now then. Are you ready, princess?”

“Yes, Halter, if you would.”

Marie tore off the chrono-compass by her coat’s chest pocket. That was the proof of being a Meister. It was a medal a girl called Marie Bell Breguet had once obtained.

With a grunt, Marie flung it up into the air.

At the same time, Halter raised his gun and fired. The shot was on target, piercing through the chrono-compass.

“——”

Destroyed by the bullet, the chrono-compass smashed into countless gears as it fell.

“That’s right—Being a Meister? Who cares about that,” Marie muttered like she was finally spitting something unpleasant out of her mouth.

The incredibly intricate timepiece with nine clock faces big and small, broken into bits and pieces. The proof of being one of the very best clocksmiths in the world. There were clocksmiths who devoted their entire lives to earning one.

Excellent character, outstanding talent, and unremitting training—just as in the past, the present world continued to overflow with despairing clocksmiths who had all those areas covered yet still couldn’t become a Meister. Even Marie, who had been called the Breguets’ greatest treasure, had only obtained it after herculean efforts.

“——”

However, Marie didn’t care about that at all.

If it was no help to her in accomplishing her current goal, if it was only going to get in the way of the ideals she was trying to protect—then it was absolutely worthless.

“From here on, I’ll be doing as I please.” Marie lifted her head and surveyed everyone’s faces.

She clenched her hand into a fist before continuing emphatically, “I want to save this city. I don’t care about what happens after, and things that are of no use to me are the same as shit. I don’t care who you are, if you’re gonna get in my way, I’ll crush you and force my will through. Got a problem with that?!”

Halter answered Marie’s bold declaration with suppressed laughter. While covering his smile with his hands, he gazed at her tenderly and said, “Well, I don’t have a problem with that, Dr. Marie, but I do think it’s questionable for a lady to say ‘shit.’“

“Shut it, iiidiot.” Marie replied in a vulgar tone as she placed her hands on her hips. “The Meister Marie Bell Breguet no longer exists. I’m just Marie. A brat with no obligations or responsibilities whatsoever.” She smiled. Her eyes were full of fighting spirit.

She turned towards Naoto and RyuZU. “With this, we’re on equal terms now, for better or worse. I’ll be working you to the bone without any qualms, so you’d best prepare yourself.”

“Ah—, well—...Right, I’ll try my best, ma’am.” Naoto nodded as he drew backwards slightly.

As they had been talking, Halter quickly checked whether there had been any explosives or traps planted in the car. Confirming that there weren’t any, he unlocked the doors before cheerfully saying, “Come on, get in. I’ll take you guys on the ride of your lives.”

●

Marie took the front passenger seat, while Naoto and RyuZU sat in back. Once everyone had buckled up, Halter stepped on the gas, a ferocious smile on his face.

After explosively speeding up the underground parking lot’s ramp, Halter turned the steering wheel sharply. The car drifted as its tail violently veered to the right, causing Naoto to grab the assist grip on the ceiling in a panic. The gravitational engine roared as the car accelerated.

“—How horrible,” Marie groaned, pained by the sight outside. Even if one were to put things mildly, it was total hell in downtown Kyoto right now.

Dark clouds covered the skies as thunder boomed. In the distance, several tornadoes could be seen ravaging the city as if it wasn’t even worth their time. The things that were caught in the gravitational anomaly and funneled up into the air included houses, junk—and people. With things as they were, it looked like the anomaly would only grow more powerful.

The intense view looked just like a scene from a disaster film. Those were the kind of streets the car Halter was driving bolted through.

They were headed towards the center of the city—the giant core tower that pierced both the heaven and earth. It was the vast nucleus of the city that governed all of its weather and other natural phenomena.

“Hurry, Halter!”

“Right!” Halter responded.

The main road they were on had accidents everywhere, but Halter managed to weave through the gaps by turning the steering wheel left and right as he continued to accelerate.

Naoto had taken off his headphones and was listening attentively. He quietly mentioned, “Ah—If you already noticed then I might be giving unwanted help, but—there seem to be two cars with menacing vibes approaching from the left.”

“Whaaat? Is it the military?!” Marie exclaimed.

“No!—I don’t think so?” Halter answered.

Naoto nodded, and just then, two gray cars leaped out from the cross street behind them. They were autonomous vehicles with machine guns installed on top of their flat bodies. The two vehicles drifted as they changed their directions and chased after the car Halter was driving at a fierce speed.

“—Warning! Warning! Pull over at once!” the jagged sound of a robotic voice rang out from one of them.

“These aren’t pursuers from the military. They’re unmanned patrol cars that the police use. They’re something like a vehicle-type of automata, and it seems like they’re chasing after us at their own discretion.”

“Haah? Why are the police chasing us?!” Marie yelled.

After thinking a bit, Naoto suggested, “—Isn’t it probably because this car is going way over the speed limit?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Marie shouted angrily, kicking the dashboard. “Trying to catch someone for speeding at a time like this, are the Japanese idiots?!” Turning to face Halter in the driver’s seat, Marie inquired, “Can you shake them off?”

“Looks difficult. They’re a little faster than us. It’d be troublesome if they continue to hinder us like this.”

“Got it.” Marie unfastened her seatbelt and bent to the side, pulling the lever to raise her seat. “Naoto, just to confirm, they’re unmanned, right?”

“Yeah, no mistake, but what do you plan to do?”

“Lower your head and grab on to something.”

“—Huh?”

“Master Naoto, lean towards me.” RyuZU pulled Naoto towards herself so she could cover him. Hearing the sound of the patrol cars that were chasing after them getting closer, Naoto stiffened.

Marie opened the car’s sunroof and popped out up to her waist. In her hand was an object that looked to be about twenty-five centimeters tall...

“Wha—?!”

It was a submachine gun.

Ignoring Naoto’s gasp, Marie fired at the car on the right. A full-auto volley of bullets showered the unmanned patrol car. However, the sprayed shots merely scratched the car’s armored exterior as they were deflected.

“...Bulletproof armor? How cheeky for a measly patrol car.” Marie clicked her tongue.

Naoto spoke up. “Umm, I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me, who would be playing ‘Ordinary City Resident A’ if this were an action movie, to say this, but...”

“What?”

“The car you just shot at has two-wheel drive. The right front wheel seems to be unstable, so if you aim there, then probably—”

Before Naoto could finish and, Marie rotated the submachine gun one revolution with the flick of her wrist, causing it to swiftly transform.

—Coil Spear.

Using the weapon, which had transformed into a small rifle, Marie aimed and fired in a flash. The bullet ricocheted off the asphalt and up into the suspension of the right front wheel—which immediately popped off. The patrol car shook violently.

It began to spin, and the other patrol car collided with it from behind, making them both roll over before smashing into the guardrails and landing on their sides.

“...Your ears sure are handy, aren’t they.” A sigh of admiration escaped Marie’s lips as she refastened her seatbelt.

“Are you seriously required to know how to snipe like that to become a Meister...?”

“Don’t base your assumptions off this princess.” Halter laughed as he turned the steering wheel sharply.

Their car drifted a great deal as it turned at the wide intersection, then began to race forward at an even more ferocious speed. They had entered the administrative district and were on a broad boulevard that traced a straight line and was surrounded by high-rises. If they just continued right to the end of this road, they’d arrive at the entrance to the core tower.

“...Everything’s gone well so far, even though I figured there’d be an inspection point along the way somewhere as well,” Marie said uneasily.

“Sealing the city off requires forces too, after all. They might have actually pulled out already,” Halter answered.

Right after Halter finished speaking, Naoto felt a chill run down his spine. But before he could tell the others about it—

“Excuse me, Master Naoto.”

RyuZU, who had been sitting quietly until then, began to move. She pulled Naoto towards herself forcefully, embracing him tightly.

“Mph—hmphngh?!” Naoto’s voice was muffled as his face was buried into RyuZU’s soft chest.

“? What’re y—” Marie turned around and began to ask, but was so shocked she stopped mid-speech.

That was because RyuZU’s skirt had fluttered slightly. As someone who had a grasp on RyuZU’s construction, Marie knew what the sign she’d just seen meant.

The one weapon RyuZU was armed with—the black scythe extending out from under her skirt—had been swung down at a speed so fast that even Halter, a cyborg, couldn’t perceive it. Immediately after, there was a crack as the car was cleaved cleanly in two down the middle, like a gag in a cartoon.

The two halves drifted apart and started to lean outward and away from each other, tracing a straight line as they continued to move forward in accordance to the law of inertia.

“What the hell do you think you’re d—?!”

As Marie and Halter cried out, a deafening boom ran right past them. Something sharp and heavy pierced the air right between the two halves of the car.

—Even Naoto’s super-hearing couldn’t capture that “thing,” which had bolted past faster than the speed of sound.

The blast that sounded behind them afterwards, however, revealed its identity. It had been a shell—a high-explosive projectile with overwhelming firepower—that had fallen from the air and hit the ground.

The blast of air from the explosion caused the halves of the car to fall onto their exteriors. Sparks scattered everywhere as the metal grated against the asphalt. Carrying Naoto in her arms, RyuZU escaped from her half of the car with a skip.

While bearing another person’s weight, RyuZU danced down from the skies. She continued falling like so before landing gracefully.

RyuZU looked down at the bewildered Naoto, whose eyes were darting about between her breasts.

“Master Naoto, were you injured anywhere?”

“Uh, shouldn’t you worry about the two over there more than me...?” Naoto said as he slipped down from RyuZU’s arms.

The halves of the car had continued to slide and crashed right into the guardrails. Their bodies were practically demolished, and their respective wheels faced the sky and clattered pitifully as they spun fruitlessly in the air.

If they were caught up in that...

Just as Naoto was thinking that, he noticed a white lump lying face-down on the ground right next to him—Marie. With her summer coat soiled, she stood up with a vengeance. It seemed that they had escaped just before the crash.

“RyuZUUUUUUUUUU!! Are you trying to kill us?!” Marie shouted, her beautiful emerald eyes brimming with murderous intent.

However, RyuZU tilted her head and looked puzzled. “You sure do say some odd things. Looking at things objectively: did I not just incidentally save your fleeting, precious life as I was protecting Master Naoto?—I would not mind if you bowed your head and offered me blessings of gratitude, you know?”

“There were other ways to do it, weren’t there?!”

Halter staggered toward Marie from her side. As one would expect, his clothes were dirtied as well. He threw a glance behind himself. Seeing that the road had been reduced to a crater, he groaned quietly.

“...Hey Marie. The more important thing is that they fired a shell at us in a downtown area.”

“Urghh, God! Is every last one of them totally insane?!”

“It seems that Mistress Marie has a tendency towards emotional instability. Lack of composure is the sign of an infantile mind. Would it not be a good idea to become more of an adult and keep your childishness limited to your figure?”

Marie lowered her head and looked down, her mouth flapping open and closed repeatedly. “I feel like I could smash even a military-use automaton into pieces right now with the hatred I’m feeling towards this unreasonable treatment.”

“That so? Then without further delay, could you give it a try?” Halter jested. Marie looked up at Halter, intending to retort, but was left speechless when she followed his gaze with her own eyes. There was a red light shining in the center of the road about three hundred meters in front of them.

—It was an eye. A single eye that belonged to a body towering imposingly over the road, blocking it and casting a giant shadow onto the ground.

It had an enormous frame with a total height of roughly six meters and two legs with reverse joints. Its silhouette was akin to that of a hare standing halfway up or an ostrich with short legs, and its abdomen was armed with a 120mm cannon.

Cold sweat gushed out of Marie.

“How does it look, princess? Could you do something about this with that boasted punch of yours?”

“You’re saying that while knowing full well what that is, aren’t you, Halter?! That’s a heavily armed automaton!”

—A heavily armed automaton.

It was an unmanned mobile weapon developed for subjugation through force. Equipped with a powerful cannon, durable alloy armor, and the ability to run, even on uneven surfaces. Because it was more maneuverable than a tank, it was undoubtedly one of the most powerful weapons in modern-day urban warfare.

Furthermore, there was more than just one of them.

Behind the first mobile suit she saw, Marie made out two, three... She was able to confirm sixteen of them in total just from what she could see by squinting her eyes.

“...My, is this finally the end of the road for us? What a bummer. I still haven’t fulfilled my dream of hitting a jackpot in Vegas and hiring a blond model to wait on me.”

“Discard that vulgar delusion of yours,” Marie muttered as she glared at Halter contemptuously. Despite the tangent, neither of them looked in the least bit relaxed.

“Unmanned weapons... They’ve probably been set to automatically intercept anyone who tries to approach the core tower.”

The reason the mobile suits weren’t shooting right now was because the distance at which they recognized a moving object like a car versus the distance at which they recognized a human who was standing still as a target to intercept were set to be different.

“To think that they’d use a force almost on the scale of a battalion as disposable chips. What happened to their spirit of not wasting things?”

“If they’re going to make things look like an accident that they didn’t know about beforehand, they’d need to suffer some losses too, wouldn’t they?”

As the two exchanged persiflage, an air of despair began to drift between them.

RyuZU quietly stepped forward and asked, “In short, the two of you are going to give up here... Are you fine with me construing things this way?”

“Wellll——yeah,” Marie groaned with her eyes half-closed, looking agitated. “Breaking through that from the front is impossible. We have to somehow find a blind spot in the region they were set to guard and make an invasion route based on that—”

“If you think we have the time for that, there would be a need for me to re-categorize you from small fry to less than small fry...” RyuZU spewed out a derisive line dripping with venom, after which she began to walk forward—

Towards the throng of mobile suits that were like avatars of violence and murderous intent.

“RyuZU? Just what are you planning to do?” Naoto asked worriedly, but the answer he received was succinct.

“I’ll eliminate them,” RyuZU replied as she took half a step backwards. She scowled as if the obstacle she saw before her was something exceedingly displeasing to her eyes. “Of all things, those pieces of junk without even a shred of artistry and so miserable that I can barely stand to look at them fired a shell at Master Naoto. Given that that is the case, they are enemies that I should eliminate,” RyuZU declared gallantly.

Marie yelled in a strained voice, “Wha, stop right there! Those are the latest military-use automata, you know?!”

“What about it?”

“‘What about it?’ You...!”

“If you are trying to say that an antique made a thousand years ago cannot win against a state-of-the-art weapon...” A small, audacious smile surfaced on RyuZU’s face. Her golden eyes were focused only on what was in front of her. “Let me answer you like this—” She looked up at the skies. “Even after a thousand years, you humans still have not graduated from those brains of yours that are below those of mites, unable to create anything but toys that do not best even me—the weakest among us sisters.”

A sound spilled out from RyuZU. It was not her usual light and melodic voice.

In a mechanical, businesslike manner, RyuZU said—let me revise that—RyuZU proclaimed, “Definition Proclamation—the First of the Initial-Y Series, RyuZU YourSlave.”

That’s right, she properly proclaimed.

“Inherent ability—‘Dual Time’ ...Initiating start sequence.”

It was a declaration of mutiny.

This is what her statement expressed:

Right now, from this moment onward—

I shall break the laws of physics.

Naoto’s eyes widened.

He heard a faint sound from within RyuZU that would be absolutely impossible for an ordinary person to hear.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

The sound of a clock’s second hand demarking time.

Loosely, definitely, irregularly, irrationally—but also beautifully and naturally—the sound distorted. At the same time, the sound of gears clicking into place against each other rang out, and in a cascade like a chain of dominoes being knocked over, RyuZU’s black, formal dress transformed in shape and color. The naked, pale skin of her arms was laid bare, her face was covered by a fluttering veil, and her dainty torso was wrapped tightly in a pearl-white wedding dress.

Her golden eyes flared into a brilliant, ruby-like red.

“—Commencing shift from the first timepiece, ‘Real Time,’ to the second timepiece, ‘Imaginary Time.’”

The shutter of the timepiece above RyuZU’s chest was lowered and, immediately after, a second timepiece revealed itself. The sound of a second hand ticking that Naoto couldn’t hear made his eardrums vibrate.

There wasn’t a single alteration in this space, this time, or this universe, but the supernatural sound RyuZU was producing was refashioning the time she was in and her very existence according to aberrant laws of physics.

It was incomprehensible.

But Naoto’s perception chased the continual changes in the sound assiduously.

“Initiating Chrono Hook—Jumping from normal operation to imaginary operation.”

RyuZU suddenly turned around, surprising him. He swallowed his breath. On the surface of the pair of deep crimson eyes turned towards Naoto were complicated patterns that glowed brilliantly yet ephemerally.

RyuZU whispered in a sing-song voice, “Master Naoto.”

“—Y, Yes?”

“The reason I stopped functioning for over 206 years was because of just a single gear, the one that you fixed for me. I am now going to initiate that gear, the ‘Imaginary Gear.’ It will only seem like a moment to you, but on my time axis, several hours will have passed.”

—What are you saying? Naoto simply couldn’t seem to grasp the gist, and his face showed it.

Regardless, RyuZU cast her eyes downward apologetically and continued, her voice dispassionate. “Once this function is initiated, it cannot be turned off until my spring is fully unwound. I shall definitely return, so when I do, please—take care of my spring.”

“Y, Yeah.”

“Well then, though it will only be from my perspective, please forgive me for leaving your side for as long as three hours.”

With an elegant gesture, RyuZU made a curtsy and bowed deeply.

She announced the name of the maneuver she was about to undertake: “—‘The Relative Maneuver, Mute Scream’—”

And that instant, in Naoto’s consciousness, everything had come to an end.

●

Naoto wouldn’t be able to say what had happened in order.

As for why, it would be because with Naoto’s—No, to any human’s imperfect vision, everything would appear to have happened simultaneously.

And that—that was, in fact, true.

It was just like an illusion of a film flying past in five minutes in a theater. An unnatural sensation of seeing a transformation process that should be there, entirely omitted. An absurd reality in which everything was altered instantaneously.

A wholly inexplicable, blasphemous phenomenon.

If one were to try to describe what happened anyway—it would be like this:

First, the sixteen heavily armed automata blocking Naoto’s way had all been pulverized all at once. Underneath their remnants were several hundred lightly armed automata whose necks and feet had, without a single exception, been severed from their torsos.

The self-propelled artillery that had occupied a key position had been cleaved in two from front to back. The ten-odd silent helicopters that had dominated the skies, intimidating Naoto and his group from above, had had their rotors torn off and were helplessly plummeting downwards.

That was the conclusion of things.

The unmanned force about the size of a battalion that had been deployed to seal entry to the core tower had been, in a literal instant, wholly transformed into a gigantic heap of scrap iron.

“W, What’s up with all this...?” Halter muttered, dumbfounded.

“...RyuZU did all this by herself?” Naoto said as he noticed the pleasant sensation of something pressing down on his feet.

Looking down, there was RyuZU, snuggling up to him with a face like a child sleeping in her parent’s arms.

“T, That’s right. I’ve gotta wind her spring—” Recalling the task he had been entrusted with, Naoto turned RyuZU to her side in a hurry.

Holding her slender, dainty waist under his arm, he parted her silver hair. He reached his hand towards RyuZU’s spring—whose teeny little grip lay slyly hidden a little above her neck—and began to wind her attentively.

As he was doing so, Marie cried out, “Imaginary...? Did she say imaginary time—?!” Her eyes were overflowing with terror. “N, No way... Time control is a technology that we don’t even have a hypothesis for! How does she have such an ability?!”

“Ah—sorry to bother you while you’re all excited, but can I ask for an explanation? I don’t understand what just happened.” A groan spilled from Halter’s mouth.

While winding RyuZU’s spring, Naoto also looked at Marie as if deeply interested. Marie audibly gulped.

“—Imaginary time. It’s like the time that passes in dreams... For example, you’ve had a dream long enough that it felt like several days had passed even though you had only dozed off for a few minutes before, right?”

In dreams, time doesn’t simply flow. There, time has no continuity or regularity. The time observed in dreams can speed up or slow down or freely move between past and future. What that shows is that the concept known as time is actually relative, not absolute.

The concept of time as absolute, flowing from the past to the future at a fixed rate is flawed—In reality, clocks, arguably the best symbols of that school of thought, do nothing but delineate what events happen at what point inside the continuous consciousness that humans possess.

What exposes that truth is the axis of time whose existence can only be proven mathematically that lies perpendicular to the axis of real time.

Delineated by imaginary numbers that don’t really exist.

A fictitious time conjured by one’s imagination.

Namely—imaginary time.

“Umm, sorry, but I don’t speak French.”

“Every word and sentence I said was proper Japanese!” Marie huffed and puffed after yelling with all her might.

Beside her, Halter spoke up, sounding perplexed. “...Even if you say that, does something like that really exist? Sorry, but I didn’t understand any of what you said, either. I would think that as a Geselle I’d be able to understand... though I may not look the part at times.”

“...It doesn’t. Rather, even if it did, it would be impossible to observe.”

Observing imaginary time would require an object that existed in imaginary time, something that is only possible in mathematical models. As long as human consciousness remains something that only flows continually in one direction, humans can never observe it, let alone understand it.

However—

“Hmm?” Naoto tilted his head.

Stopping his hand that was winding RyuZU’s spring, Naoto gestured toward the automaton and pointed out, “Isn’t there someone right here that fits the bill?”

“I’m telling you that that’s impossible!!” Marie raised her voice.

Halter summed things up for Marie to pacify her. “In other words, this young lady used her control of this so-called ‘imaginary time’ to move on a different axis of time from ours, and by doing so, she was able to create this terrible spectacle, right?”

“No—that’s impossible.” Shaking her head, Marie firmly rejected Halter’s understanding of things. “It’s impossible. Taking in positive energy and outputting negative energy... Unless something that exhibits that kind of impossible behavior exists, it can’t be explained. I’m sure that ‘imaginary time’ is just a moniker and that whatever RyuZU did just now works on a different princi—”

“C, Could that have been it?” Naoto spoke up suddenly as if he had just recalled something.

Marie looked at him suspiciously, “What, do you have a clue of some sort?”

“RyuZU mentioned something earlier, didn’t she? About the malfunctioning gear that caused her to stop running.”

“Ahh, now that you mention it...”

“RyuZU was broken because of just that one single gear,” Naoto announced, “that outputs counterclockwise rotational energy even though it turns clockwise.”

“...................................................................Haah?”

After an ample silence, Marie furrowed her eyebrows sharply and stared at Naoto. “W, What did you just say?”

“I mean, just like I said, there was a gear like that. It was the only one that wasn’t tur—”

“How did you fix something like that?!”

“Eh? I mean—is it that strange?”

As if she was about to bite him, Marie exclaimed, “Of course it’s strange! Rather, it’s impossible! Do you have loose screws in your head?!”

“Uh, err...?”

“Use some common sense!! Are they teaching you nothing at school?!”

“Ah—well... I’m always sleeping, except for during practical exams. Tee hee~” Embarrassed, Naoto stuck his tongue out to one side while Marie stared on in silence.

Sensing a sign of danger in her eyes, Naoto hurriedly followed up, “Ah—I mean, you couldn’t fix it because you assumed it turned counterclockwise.”

With an icy cold gaze and tone, Marie asked, “Do you think it’s possible for a ball thrown forward to fly backwards?”

Naoto tilted his head and looked puzzled. “...Ahh, now that you mention it, it’s strange, maybe?”

“Right? So—”

Marie let out a sigh of relief. You finally get it, huh.

“But if that’s how it is, what can we do but accept it?”

“Stop messing with me! —————————Argh!!” Marie screamed, throwing her head forward so hard that her hair flew everywhere. Trembling all over, she uttered, “For the Breguet family’s thirteen-hundred-year lineage to lose to a, a loose-screwed, perverted jackass like this... Just what kind of joke is this...?! God damn it!”

Marie clenched her teeth.

The idiot in front of her was literally and truly absurd.

If you’re saying that someone wouldn’t have been able to fix this automaton without that irrationality bordering on madness of yours... I see, if that’s the reason every single clocksmith born to the Breguet family has failed, I can accept that.

I can accept it, but—

“...I don’t want to acknowledge it. What’s with this absurdity that violates all reason...?!” Marie groaned in agony.

Seeing her like that, Naoto tilted his head and said, “I mean, you keep saying stuff like ‘common sense’ and ‘that’s impossible,’ but frankly, isn’t it a bit late to worry about those things?”

“...What are you trying to say?”

“I mean, RyuZU was made by Y, right?”

“Yeah, so what?”

“Well—getting the idea to try to make an entire planet function with gears is pretty out there itself, don’t you think?”

“——————————————————”

“Rather, isn’t it obvious that an automaton made by a guy like that would be more or less out of the ordinary?”

“——————————————————”

Marie couldn’t respond. Her tongue had frozen.

—“Y.”

The legendary clocksmith whose true name no one knew, he was the designer of this planet—the Clockwork Planet—and also RyuZU’s maker. Marie had never doubted that legendary figure until now.

She had respected him as a fellow clocksmith and had devoted herself to her studies in an attempt to one day catch up to him and fully understand the technologies he had left behind.

But—But—

Today, for the first time, Marie thought that his existence was an anomaly.

He had been a monster who had invented technologies that no one understood even a thousand years later, had created the blueprint for this planet, and on top of all that, had even mastered relative—or imaginary—time.

“—How silly. There’s no way such a feat can be done.”

But whatever he had been, anomaly or not, his technologies and his product were right before her eyes. She had no choice but to acknowledge them. Just as Naoto had said, as far as this was concerned, there was nothing they could do but accept it.

...Even so, the nasty chill she had felt wouldn’t dissipate.

The false sensation that the ground beneath her was rattling as it crumbled wouldn’t disappear, either.

“——”

Just then.

“......Good morning, Master Naoto.”

With her spring wound, RyuZU had restarted.

Seeing that, Marie and Halter instinctively took a defensive posture. The emotion swimming in the two’s eyes, as clear as day—was terror.

It was an exceedingly natural response for the clocksmiths who had just witnessed the nonsensical functionality that the automaton known as RyuZU possessed with their own eyes.

Dual Time—and the Relative Maneuver Mute Scream.

Just as its name suggested, it was an ability that sprayed silent death everywhere. RyuZU was an automaton that could destroy everything in frozen time, her targets unable to even resist.

—There was no guarantee whatsoever that they wouldn’t be included as targets in her sights.

If she were just a weapon, then there probably wouldn’t have been a problem. But RyuZU was an automaton. She was an autonomous being that didn’t take orders from them. Furthermore, she wasn’t programmed with the ethical code for artificial intelligence. In other words, that meant she could kill people. If she felt a need to, this automaton could very easily murder humans.

There wasn’t any human who wouldn’t be afraid of her if they knew these facts. There couldn’t be.

However—

Seeing her slowly get up, Naoto said, “RyuZU,” He paused, taking a deep breath.

“Please—Please be my wife!” He yelled.

●

RyuZU’s reply was almost instantaneous.

She blushed ever so slightly as a modest, yet sentimental smile came to her face, and in a light, clear, and in a sing-song voice like the sound of a music box, she replied, “You seem to have lost your mind, Master Naoto. How about you discern your place?”

——......

Mercilessly cut down in a single stroke, Naoto crumbled, falling prostrate onto the ground as his body spasmed.

A painful silence fell.

Marie looked up at Halter. He was looking back at her with half-closed, vacant eyes. Seeing the cold, sour look on his face, Marie nodded at him. They were thinking the same thing.

Namely, ...The hell is this kid saying?

“Naoto...” Marie sighed as she addressed the boy trembling as he groveled on the ground. “Are you sane? —Of course not, I knew that, but have you finally completely lost it? Just what train of thought led you to say what you just did?”

Still shaking, Naoto answered with a voice as tiny as a fly’s. “Dat’s not it... It jus’ came outta me...”

I mean—I can’t help it if I see something like that, you know? Naoto thought as he quivered in embarrassment.

He had lived up to now liking, loving, romancing machines. In his life filled with gears, RyuZU was unmistakably the supreme machine.

She was an automaton who possessed the greatest functions; her exterior was that of a girl so cute he could die; the sound of her operating was like the singing voice of an angel; and of all things, her master happened to be someone like himself.

—How could I not fall in love with her? And now, that transformation—

If I don’t confess after seeing the most precious girl to me in the entire universe wearing a wedding dress, when am I ever going to?

It wasn’t reason. It was his soul crying out impulsively.

—That was why RyuZU’s words pierced his heart all the more lethally.

“Master Naoto, I conclude that you have lost your mind.” RyuZU repeated. “—Even if I am a supreme work of art and a peerless automaton, a proposal is something done between a man and a woman of equal standing. To request marriage from a clockwork servant is, to put things modestly, absolute nonsense, and frankly, aberrant.”

“Stop! My HP bar already fell below zero a long time ago!” As he traced small circles on the ground with his finger, still prostrate, Naoto said, “Heheheh... no, right, I get it... Yes, that was rash of me. I knew that RyuZU was embarrassed to have me as her master from the start. I couldn’t think of appropriate words to express how I felt upon realizing that she had gone from being the treasure of the world to my personal treasure... I was reckless. I’ll reflect on this solemnly. I’ll go bury myself in a hole.”

Naoto trembled in anguish. Perhaps even Marie felt some sympathy seeing him in such a sorry state, for she said while looking down at him from behind, “W, Well... Don’t be so down, yeah? I mean sure, anyone would recoil at being suddenly proposed to by someone like you, but I mean, there’ll be good things too if you liv—”

“—I am sorry, but with all due respect, Mistress Marie.” For some reason, those words made RyuZU respond. In a tone that sounded somehow menacing, as if she were issuing a threat, she said, “You are but slightly shrewder than most among the base lifeforms known as humanity, who possess intelligence below that of fleas. If you think you are in a position to look down on Master Naoto, I would suggest that you reflect on your own irrelevance instead.”

“Huh?—W, Why do I have to be insulted so badly just for agreeing with you?! Also, you’re not sorry at all, are you!”

“Say, miss,” Halter interjected. He seemed puzzled as he stroked his chin. “... It seems that you’re not programmed with the code of ethics, considering that you tried to kill our princess, but don’t tell me that you aren’t even programmed to obey your master—Naoto—unconditionally?”

RyuZU answered, “I am YourSlave, the one who follows—the only rule that I have been programmed with is to follow my master. Is there a problem?”

“...I see. In other words, you aren’t programmed to show favor towards your master.”

Those words became the final nail in the coffin for Naoto as he wailed, heartbroken.

However—

“There seems to be a misunderstanding, so let me rephrase. I am programmed to obey my master as a ‘follower,’ but my having feelings for Master Naoto is of my own free will. It would be great if you did not treat me the same as a sex toy who spreads her legs unconditionally as soon as the confirmation of her master is complete.”

“...Free will? Did an automaton just say something like ‘free will’ just now, Halter?!” Marie cried. However, Naoto, who had abruptly stopped crying, ignored her.

RyuZU said it just now. She definitely did.

—That she ‘has feelings’ for me.

...Oookay, calm down, don’t panic, Naoto told himself.

Naoto slowly stood up before asking gingerly, “—Could it be that... you don’t hate me... RyuZU?”

“Me? Hate Master Naoto?” RyuZU had a blank expression. However, Naoto didn’t let it slip past his eyes—or rather, his ears.

Now that he had taken off his headphones, he definitely heard it—

The sound of RyuZU’s gears shifting ever so slightly.

“What reason would I have to dislike someone like Master Naoto, whom it would be a challenge to find anything but fault with?”

—In other words, she had no reason to like or dislike him.

Marie and Halter probably heard it that way. If Naoto had taken her words at face value as well, he probably would have smashed his head against the ground and buried himself.

However, by now, Naoto was convinced.

RyuZU had showered him with heaps of verbal abuse up to now—and strangely, he didn’t find it unpleasant. That was probably, most likely, maybe, not because Naoto was a pervert with particular fetishes.

...No, perhaps he had no choice but to frankly acknowledge that at the point that he, being the machine geek that he was, proposed to RyuZU, an automaton—but that’s not at all what we’re talking about here—

“RyuZU, c, can I ask you why you won’t be my wife?” Naoto’s voice was trembling.

“I am Master Naoto’s follower, so... That is, to be your wife would be—in other words, to be husband and wife with you...” RyuZU’s expression was as graceful and elegant as always. At first glance, one couldn’t see any difference in it from usual.

However, Naoto didn’t let it slip past him—RyuZU’s eyes were wavering slightly.

“A husband and a wife—are two people of equal standing. It’s true that whether you consider looks, brains, intelligence, or class, I surpass Master Naoto to the point that it’s meaningless for us to be compared, but you are my master, and I am your follower. A thought like us being of equal standing... Please discern your place.”

Naoto was convinced.

He asked, “Say—RyuZU, could it be... that you’re loaded with an abusive speech filter?”

RyuZU tilted her head. Then, she scrutinized him as if hurt by his words.

“—Abusive? Me? For me, who sits at the zenith, to spend effort doing something unproductive like verbally abusing Master Naoto, a creature on the lowest level of the hierarchy? There is no way that I would conduct myself in a manner that damages my own character, like spewing venomous words, do you not agree?”

“““She wasn’t aware of it herself!””” It wasn’t just Naoto who yelled that. Marie and Halter also joined him in chorus.

Naoto’s breath had become ragged, and he placed his hand on his chest to calm it.

“C-C-C-C, Calm down, Naoto Miura...! You’re at the ultimate crossroads right now!”

If RyuZU had an abusive speech filter (Naoto’s provisional hypothesis), then everything she’s said up to now was questionable.

Naoto had to somehow evade that hypothetical abusive speech filter and extract RyuZU’s true feelings, which had been deftly hidden, out from her.

—In the end, did RyuZU like or dislike him?

The answer to this one question would mean either heaven or hell for Naoto...!!

Naoto said, “Th, Then, let’s try this. Nod for ‘yes’ and shake your head for ‘no.’”

RyuZU nodded.

...Alright, it seems I can bypass her abusive speech filter if I make her keep her mouth shut.

Confirming that, Naoto turned the gears in his head—which usually saw so little use that it wouldn’t be surprising to find cobwebs there—at full strength as he cautiously selected the contents of his question so he could get a definite answer.

He asked, “Then, first... Is the ‘free will’ that you mentioned something you’re programmed with that activates unconditionally upon a request by your master?”

RyuZU shook her head from side to side.

Nice! It’s going well. Naoto took a manly pose, raising his fists up in front of him.

He was happy at the content of her reply as well. In other words, RyuZU was programmed to follow her master, but having feelings for her master wasn’t automatic.

However.

“Then... have those feelings of your own free will ever been directed at anyone besides me?”

Naoto’s tactic that he had paused briefly to come up with began with a cautious—one could even say cowardly—question.

Considering that her abusive speech filter operated outside her consciousness, her free will might also have been receiving the same sort of interference. If so, Naoto wanted to analyze previous examples from which he could infer some sort of interference with her will that RyuZU wasn’t conscious of. He could use that to deduce the interference’s activation conditions.

However.

RyuZU simply shook her head.

“—Huh? It hasn’t happened before?”

Nod.

“Uh, umm. So, you’re saying that, even though it’s never happened before—you have feelings for me?”

Nod.

...The whole thing was becoming more and more baffling to Naoto.

Not to parrot Marie, but what is it about a dimwitted pervert like me that could have flipped that switch within her?

—Actually, before that...

RyuZU’s eyes had become moist and were wandering unsteadily. Her pale cheeks were tinged with scarlet, and her lips, just barely parted, were trembling. Her back, which she had always kept gracefully nice and straight, now seemed fragile somehow as she fidgeted bashfully.

She looked just like—right, just like a maiden troubled by love.

Could this mean... No way. That expression on her face though. Could it really be...?

Was he just seeing things differently now because he had been constantly showered with rushes of abuse? Or was this the real RyuZU that had been hidden behind her words and that he hadn’t been able to see until now?

...He had to make sure of it.

“Then, umm, I’ve got just two questions left... I want to ‘confirm’ something. Is that okay?”

Nod.

“First—In other words, you... have feelings for me by your own will and judgment and not because anyone programmed you that way... Is this what you’re saying?”

RyuZU nodded meekly.

Now that her wall of vilification had been demolished, the feelings that had been hidden within her words were laid bare. She exhaled as if in pain. She was holding both of her arms as if pleading for mercy. Her eyes were cast downward meekly, yet as his follower she couldn’t turn her face away from him.

Naoto struggled to breathe. His mouth was as dry as a desert, and his heart was beating so fast that it felt like his veins would rupture. Something hot welled up from deep inside his heart. He was terrified of facing the girl in front of him. He wanted to yell, to run away—but even so, he held his ground.

His field of vision trembled.

He uttered the last confirmation. “—Then, as for how strong those feelings are... could you nod your head as much as you see fit to describe how much you l-like me?”

It’d be more accurate to call it a want of his than a confirmation.

Comprehending her master’s wish, the automaton’s face turned red, then slowly began to move.

Once, twice, thrice...

Nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod——

Naoto gazed up at the heavens. Hot tears spilled out in big drops nonstop, wetting his cheeks.

He was happy. Right now, he was faced with the fact that the most precious treasure in the world loved him. His heart felt full from just that. At this point, what did questions like whether this counted as love or not or whether love between machine and man was proper matter?

—Ahh, the world is so beautiful.

It was like the daybreak that slowly lightened the deep darkness of the night sky. Like scenery that came alive upon the sun peeking its face through a gap in the clouds. Like a newborn that opened his eyes for the first time after crawling out of his mother’s womb.

Naoto simply continued gazing at the sky as he yelled internally.

I won.

My time has come.

My life was anything but decent. To put it bluntly, I was a loser in life. There were times that I wanted to cry, too. There were even times that I wanted to die. Really, I always thought that my heart would be snapped in two one day.

—Ahh, but I’m glad I kept living.

Nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod, nod.

Seeing the scarlet-cheeked RyuZU continue to nod and nod as if it still wasn’t enough, Naoto spontaneously fell to his knees. He clenched his teeth in an effort to hold back his unstopping tears and clasped his hands together, raising them with great reverence towards the sky high above as he bowed his head.

He prayed.

It was a prayer of gratitude.

For the first time since he was born, Naoto thanked the Almighty One of this world, whoever they may be, from the bottom of his heart.

—Ahh, thank you, thank you sooo much...! I love you——!!

...And then RyuZU, who had finished nodding for the two hundred and fifty-fifth time, suddenly asked, “—Are you satisfied now, master?”

Her voice was cold.

“Considering that you even have a humiliation fetish as well, I am going to run out of category slots to assign for your personality analysis before long. Would it be alright if I summed things up and made a dedicated ‘celestial-tier pervert’ category to assign you to?”

However, because she was blushing, even those venomous words had no bite.

Wiping away his tears, Naoto smiled brightly and said, “Please, do as you wish. Right now, I’m busy savoring the joy of having been born.”

“Is that so?” RyuZU nodded. “If you plan to stay here and savor the joy of life, then that joy will last for about six more hours. I would appreciate it if you could spend the remaining time in a way that does not leave you with any regrets.”

......Hmm?

“Six hours left? Was there something going on?” Naoto tilted his head.

Marie, who had been flabbergasted by the developments until now, screeched, “The time left until this city’s and our fates are sealed, you dumb perverted bastard!”

When he heard that, Naoto looked up at the soaring tower in front of him, taken aback.

Recalling the situation that he had completely forgotten as he was being deeply moved, he yelled, “—Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Crap!! The repair of the core tower!!”

RyuZU said in a voice below freezing, “Ah, had you forgotten? I thought you were astoundingly bold to set a functional restraint on your automaton and indulge yourself in your humiliation kink in this situation, but I see that you merely have a case of tunnel vision.”

Sensing her words were even thornier than usual, Naoto asked gingerly, “Ah—...Miss RyuZU, are you mad at me, or...”

“Mad? Why should every single word Master Naoto says jolt my emotions?”

“—By all means, do as you wish.”

Witnessing a conversation that for some reason seemed sweet, Marie screeched, “Do your romantic comedy skit afterwards! Do you guys really understand the situation?!” She glared at Naoto and RyuZU with searing eyes hot enough to melt titanium alloy.

Behind her, Halter let out a deep sigh. He looked exhausted as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Give me a break, please. If we die because of this, it won’t even be funny in the afterlife.”

●

They were rushing towards the core tower, but Marie’s mind was on something else. A deep suspicion was stuck in her mind.

—“Y.”

The clocksmith who had created the world and was also RyuZU’s maker.

Imaginary Gear, the technology that shouldn’t have existed in reality.

An automaton with free will that looked like she was in love, no matter how one sliced it.

The one-of-a-kind genius that no one else in all of human history could compare to had created those things over a thousand years ago.

But that was simply too much to believe...

“Was he really human...? Did he even really exist in the first place?” Marie inadvertently muttered.

No one answered her.

●

Seventy-two thousand meters deep underground, there was a vast space filled with gears.

In that space was a central corridor, where the aisles that led to all the different sections of the floor intersected. The corridor had a height of a little more than three hundred meters and a length of at least two hundred meters, but even this broad space was but a teeny-tiny piece of the entire twenty-fourth floor.

The rest of the area was entirely buried by the gears that governed the city’s functions. Above the ceiling, behind the walls, and even underneath the floors, there were countless gears intertwined in ways complex beyond imagination.

That space was deserted, with no sign of even a single person’s presence. Aside from the four who had stepped into the area just now, there were neither any shadows nor forms here.

“...Seems like no one’s here. Did the military take everyone away?” Halter muttered as he picked a sheet up from the documents scattered on the ground.

With the equipment and papers left behind, only the clocksmiths themselves were missing. If they had voluntarily evacuated, they surely would have collected the reusable equipment, so one could surmise that their disappearance wasn’t something that they had willed themselves.

Marie sighed as she nodded. “If that’s the case, it might have been for the best. At the very least, it means that everyone’s safe...”

“Hm? No, wait.” Halter raised his face. “Looks like there’re people here after all. They’re coming back.”

As he said that, silhouettes emerged from an aisle leading to the back of the floor.

It was a group of ten-odd people. Upon noticing Marie’s group, they yelled in surprise. “Dr. Marie?!” As they called out her name, they ran towards her.

They were an elderly group of staff members who were all wearing fatigues; Service Chief Konrad was among them.

The service chief stepped forward as their representative and said, “Ahh, thank goodness! I see that you made it out safely.”

Marie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean by ‘made it out safely’?”

“Right after you went back to the surface, a group from the military came spewing nonsense and ordered us to withdraw immediately. I wanted to tell them to get lost, but they started to say something bizarre like ‘Meister Guild has already agreed to this,’ and considering that you were detained as well... Left without a choice, I had just the youngins evacuate.”

Marie said in surprise, “Why didn’t you guys evacuate as well?!”

“‘Why?’ You sure ask some strange things.” Stroking his goatee, the service chief snorted. “How could we possibly run away when there’s still plenty of work left to be done?”

“Speaking of which, Dr. Marie, I thought that the entrance had been sealed by the military. How were you able to get here?” Observation Chief Hannes asked.

Marie smiled bitterly, then shook her head. “Ah—...Let’s leave that for later. We don’t have time right now. The gravitational anomaly has already become terribly severe on the surface. We have to finish the repair as soon as possible.”

“...About that,” Hannes said with a dark expression. “Dr. Marie, sorry to tell you this when you’ve just rushed your way here, but we’d like to have you hurry and evacuate as well.”

Marie’s eyebrows shot sharply downward. “What are you saying?!”

“We’re serious. A chain reaction occurred just now.” The observation chief hung his head with pensive eyes. “If you stay as well when things are already this hopeless, then you’d... If you evacuate now, you should more than likely be able to escape.”

“You’re still young and have more talent than we do. We won’t accept having you commit suicide here with us senile old fools,” the service chief interjected from the side.

However, Marie glared at the two of them severely. “I came back to save this city, not to hear a tearful plea from a bunch of old bones.”

“But... realistically speaking, there’s no hope anymore...”

“There’s no need for concern. We have a secret weapon.”

“Secret weapon?”

A perplexed look spread among all of the staff, the two chiefs included.

Marie nodded with a smile. “Yes, let me introduce him. He’s a resident of this city, and—” Marie declared confidently. However, as she turned around, her lips froze.

Where her gaze and the palm of her hand were directed was the thing she had begun to introduce as her secret weapon.

“A resident of this city, and.....”

Her smile stiffened.

That something—namely Naoto—was looking at the ceiling ecstatically with an intoxicated expression on his face.

His delirious, feverish eyes were glittering brilliantly, like an addict’s. The incoherent “weehehehehehehe” he kept repeating clearly proved to the onlookers that he was severely ill beyond a shadow of a doubt.

On top of that...

“——Wow, how beautiful...”

“............What?”

So absorbed that he didn’t register Marie’s voice, Naoto staggered towards the wall of gears. He ogled the countless moving parts on it and the ceiling with a gaze that was clearly one of love.

“Gorgeous...! I haven’t seen mechanisms so complete and perfect since I saw RyuZU’s internal workings...! It’s simply too amazing. Dammit, just who was it?! Who was the unbelievable god that designed such pretty, bewitching, exciting, and wonnnderful moving parts...?!”

Seeing the deviant spewing nonsense as he wriggled his body gave Marie a chill, causing her to inadvertently take two steps backward. She was repulsed.

Behind her, one of the staff members inquired doubtfully, “......A secret weapon?”

“No, er, could you give me a sec?” Marie said, then groaned and shook her head as she beheld the over-the-top sight before her once more.

“Master Naoto.”

Perhaps RyuZU had become unable to watch on any longer as well, for she told him in a severe voice, “I do not think that that is what you should be worrying about right now.”

“R, RyuZU! I see that you’re someone reasonable after all... That’s right! Stop ogling the gears and—” Marie’s face relaxed; she was practically moved by RyuZU’s words.

RyuZU nodded deeply to Marie in return before continuing in a voice filled with refinement, “More importantly, blurting out that you haven’t seen such perfect mechanisms since mine as you look upon this stale, moldy antique—I cannot let such an insult pass.”

“It’s not that, either!” Marie yelled tearfully.

Meanwhile, Naoto was acting suspiciously like he had been hit right where it hurt.

“Eh, b-b, but, I mean! No, well, of course I know just how amazing you are, RyuZU, but, but—”

“No buts or butter cakes. You said my body was ‘very pretty’ the other day. Were those words lies?”

“—Your body?” Marie muttered, dumbfounded.

Naoto denied it in a fluster. “A-A-Absolutely not! As if that could be a lie!”

“Then why are your eyes being drawn towards antiques like these? I demand an explanation.”

I don’t know what’s going on anymore... Marie thought as she held her head. RyuZU’s tone and attitude are the same as always, and her wicked tongue aside, she’s wearing a gentle, highly refined smile. But something seems... off.

Almost like—a girl rebuking her boyfriend for being charmed and following another girl with his eyes.

“Look at it, this was something made a thousand years ago! Yet it’s still operating perfectly, and on top of that, everything down to the details are visible! Despite having been daringly laid bare, this framework, this beauty remains just as magi—”

“I understand now. In other words, you are telling me to strip.”

“Haah?!” Marie cried out, bewildered. Ignoring her, RyuZU began to unbutton her dress.

“H, H-H-Hey, you! A, A maiden shouldn’t show her skin in front of a gentleman!”

“Worry not, for I am an automaton, not a maiden. More importantly, even though I am superior in every way, whether it be number of parts, the precision with which they were made, or functionality, to suggest that I am inferior to mass-produced antiques like these is on a different dimension from actions that can be forgiven by claiming ignorance or stupidity.”

“Ahh——” Marie finally understood.

I see... so in other words,

In an emergency like this,

In a time like this when the fate of this metropolis and the lives of twenty million people are on the line...

This automaton is acting jealous.

And then, RyuZU clutched the hems of her dress. Seeing that, Marie yelled, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH————CUT IT OUT ALREADYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY————Y!”

She had snapped.

Rumble. As her roar rang out, it shook the space buried in countless gears.

“Consider the situation, you two! In four hours, we’ll all be buried alive!”

Perhaps the roar that she had put all her might into had done the trick, since the two of them had shut right up.

They nodded in unison at Marie.

“—Yeah, you’re right.”

“I apologize for Master Naoto failing to discern the situation.”

“Eh, it’s my fault?!”

“I don’t care whose fault it is! Listen up! In four hours—Ahh, it’s already past that point!”

Marie pointed at her pocket watch as she continued, yelling, “In three hours and fifty-seven minutes, approximately twenty million people will all be purged and sink to the earth’s core, including us! Are you two telling me I have to die watching your lunchtime soap opera?!”

...Where did the serious atmosphere that was here until just now go?

Marie panted, her shoulders heaving as she was assaulted by the desire to strangle her past self from just a little while ago to death for believing in this pervert and this automaton.

Seeing her furious expression, Naoto batted his eyes as he wiped the blood off his face. He’d just had a massive nosebleed.

“Ah—yeah, sorry. I guess it’s about time that we get serious, RyuZU.”

“Yes, Master Naoto. We shall continue this conversation afterwards.”

“I’m begging you, seriously...” Marie groaned as she nearly sank down to the floor then and there.

Service Chief Konrad called out to her from behind. “Ah—Dr. Marie? ...Just who are these people...?”

“I know what you want to say, service chief. I know all too well! But—” Marie turned around with her face red from violent fury and embarrassment. The service chief’s face had the words “fed up” practically written on it, and when Marie saw him, she continued, nearly crying. “Please give him some time out of respect for me. I’m sure that it hardly seems believable, that you don’t even want to believe it... but they’re our one and only hope.”

The service chief seemed earnest as he looked at Marie.

He had been on this Earth for as long as fifty years now. During that time, he’d seen clocksmiths who had burned out from the severe workload, as well as genius clocksmiths who had retired early, crushed by the weight of their own talent.

That’s why he had suspected that the girl in front of him had snapped in this all-too-hopeless situation, but—

Marie gazed back at the service chief fixedly. Her eyes had become a little puffy, but they still had life in them. Her gaze was one of sanity that harbored the light of reason within it.

Sighing, he nodded slightly. Though he certainly wasn’t short on questions, he concluded that he could, at the very least, trust the girl in front of him.

“I understand. I shall believe you for now.”

“Thank you,” Marie said as she smiled with tears in her eyes.

She turned her gaze back to Naoto. She caught him just as he lowered himself to sit down where he was.

He crossed his legs, straightened his back, and took a deep breath. He silently took off his pair of fluorescent-green headphones and tossed them to RyuZU.

“Take care of those for me, please.”

“Certainly.” RyuZU bowed.

Naoto gave her a smile in return before facing forward once again and sinking into silence.

Like that, he proceeded to stare off into space without moving at all.

It may have been another story for Marie, Halter, and RyuZU, but the staff who had just met Naoto for the first time had no clue what he was trying to do.

One of them spoke up restlessly. “...? Just what are you trying to—”

“Be quiet,” Naoto said sharply.

His terse words carried neither gravity nor impact. However, the sharpness of his tone made the staff member hold his tongue.

The heavy silence continued.

The sound of the gears meshing together, grating against each other, and brushing the air aside quietly sounded.

While being so intimidated that she even struggled to breathe a little, Marie inadvertently thought, —What do these sounds sound like to this guy?

The sense of hearing that could catch the disorder in the twenty-fourth floor from above ground. A superpower that anyone would scoff at in disbelief should he confess it to someone.

What did this world full of gears sound like to someone with a gift like that? Marie wanted to know the answer to that badly.

Unaware of Marie’s thoughts, Naoto continued staring into space without even so much as a twitch.

Nothing happened as time simply continued to flow.

The staff were visibly antsy. In about four more hours, they were going to sink to the bottom of the earth along with the whole metropolis and twenty million other lives. And yet, they were to remain silent, without doing anything. Such a task was no less agonizing than torture.

However, anytime someone tried to open their mouth or leave—the automaton standing next to the boy stopped them with a sharp look.

—Don’t speak.

—Don’t move.

Recognizing the overt message encoded in her gaze, the staff stayed nailed right where they were.

Two minutes, four minutes, six minutes—a seemingly eternal amount of time passed.

Before finally...

“———————I’ve got it,” Naoto muttered quietly. The tense atmosphere instantly relaxed a few degrees.

Released from the suffocating, anxiety-inducing pressure, a commotion stirred among the staff who had been constrained to silence until now. They sounded suspicious.

Among them, Observation Chief Hannes raised an eyebrow.

“You’ve got it, you say?” he questioned in a chilly tone. “Just what did you get? That you wasted precious time? If it’s the fact that we’re already done for, we’ve known that for quite some time,” the observation chief said sarcastically; however, Naoto paid no mind to his words.

While gazing at something seemingly far away, almost as if his soul had left his body behind, he declared, “Eighteen spots.”

“What...?”

Marie interjected to fill in the blanks left by Naoto’s insufficient words. “You mean that if we repair eighteen spots, the system governing gravity will be normalized, right?”

“Right.” Naoto nodded lightly.

Hearing Naoto’s reply, the observation chief became enraged, shouting at him, “Such nonsense! How would you know that?! Don’t tell me you plan to say that you grasped the structure of this floor’s mechanisms just by sitting over there?!”

“That’s right,” Naoto immediately and clearly replied.

The observation chief was about to shout at the kid in front of him again but was flabbergasted upon seeing Marie rush up to Naoto with a diagram of the floor.

“Where are those eighteen spots?” Marie asked as she spread it on the ground.

Naoto peered intently at the diagram, but alas, he shook his head.

“Sorry, this is too difficult for me to read. I’ll tell you where they are verbally, so look for them in my place.”

“Got it, leave it to me.” Marie nodded.

All of the staff present had been watching the two’s exchange as if it were something terrifying.

The observation chief asked Marie timidly, “...Dr. Marie, are you really serious? You’re going to act based on the ramblings of a boy who just said he can’t even read the layout of the floor?”

“That’s right.”

Exasperated, Hannes yelled, “Dr. Marie! For you of all people to tag along on a nasty prank of a child like this, what are you doing?”

Marie turned around and said, “I know that it’s unbelievable. But at present, we have no other means. If we have no other way regardless, then I want to bet on a miracle.”

“Dr. Marie!!” the observation chief screamed. He seriously thought that this girl, who had always been wise and composed, had snapped. Even while wavering, he continued to be driven by a sense of duty to somehow make Marie come to her senses and quickly evacuate—however—

“—43,985,047,245,908—that’s the precise number of parts.”

Naoto’s words turned that sense of duty of his into a shivering chill.

The corridor fell silent. Even Marie and Halter, who had already known about Naoto’s ability beforehand, got goosebumps.

His tone was such that one couldn’t think he was simply spewing out a random number. He declared it as if he had actually counted—no, as if he were simply reading it aloud from a spec sheet. He had declared it dispassionately, as if he were simply stating an obvious and unmistakable fact—such was his tone.

“There are 4,047 parts behaving irregularly among those. However, of those, 4,029 parts have no immediate relevance to the current situation—so in other words, there are eighteen spots. If those are repaired, the gravitational anomaly will end.”

—Just what is with this kid?

The veteran staff of Meister Guild were left speechless.

Even the service chief and the observation chief were simply dumbfounded.

Even though they could understand the simple words Naoto was saying, it appeared that their brains were refusing to acknowledge what that statement implied. There should have been no one who knew the structure of a core tower.

The total number of parts here was something that even the military, who had maintained the core tower for hundreds of years, shouldn’t know, much less how each of the components related to one another—an epic feat like that would normally take several hundreds of average clocksmiths observing and analyzing the structure of this floor for several months.

Even they, who held pride in being the best clocksmiths in the world, would need two weeks, and that’s if they came into the job completely prepared and worked themselves to the bone.

No matter how they struggled—it would have taken at least that long.

Yet, here was a boy who had announced what would have been the result of all that work after he had simply sat down for around just ten minutes.

...There was no way that could be true.

It should have been just random bullshit, but—the scary thing was, it didn’t sound that way at all.

It was almost as if they had heard the physical laws of another universe or encountered an incomprehensible extraterrestrial lifeform.

It was an abnormal, bizarre, strange, peculiar, outrageous, exceptional, inexplicable, and irrational—truth.

Someone gulped.

What was the emotion that they felt at that moment?

At the very least, they were looking at Naoto with a gaze that was neither respectful nor scornful.

If one had to say...

“—Did you not say that there is little time?” RyuZU spoke up in a freezing-cold voice that destroyed this atmosphere in which time seemed to have stopped.

She glared at each of the staff members one by one. They trembled with a start upon her gaze, and she whispered sharply, “You are free to remain stuck in a daze, but to do nothing but shiver in a situation like this where even the help of a cat would be welcome... Should I take that to mean that your skills are less than that of a cat?”

That rebuke caused heat to return to the staff members’ eyes. They blazed upon having their pride injured, the pride that came from being referred to as “first-rate” and having done jobs worthy of that title.

The service chief sighed grandly as if he were resigned. “...I suppose. It’s true that we don’t have any other methods. If Dr. Marie insists this much, then I suppose I’ll try putting my faith in this kid, considering that it doesn’t seem like he’s completely fabricating things, either.”

“But service chief...!” the observation chief groaned. He objected even now, but unable to find words to continue with, fell silent.

Because he knew just how difficult the task of observation was from his job, it was more difficult for him than anyone else to accept the reality in front of him—but he lost to the service chief’s chiding gaze and Marie’s spirited, emerald eyes.

As if enduring something difficult, he ground his molars just a bit before nodding. “...I understand. Let’s do this.”

The service chief tapped Hannes’s shoulder gently as he turned around and said, “—Now then, could we have your instructions, Dr. Marie?”

●

After getting Naoto to describe where the eighteen spots were in as much detail as possible, Marie picked out the ones that matched Naoto’s description from the list of the projected points of malfunction and made marks on the diagram of the floor.

She assigned each of the spots to different staff members according to their individual technical ability.

After the impromptu assignments and instructions were given, all that was left was the same familiar work as usual.

Each staff member took their own equipment and went off to the location to which they were assigned.

Marie sighed as she saw them off.

—There’s nothing to worry about now. They’ll surely do their jobs right.

“Now then, all that’s left is this right here... RyuZU! Come here,” Marie shouted loudly.

RyuZU walked to where she was as asked and looked down at Marie with an astringent face.

“What is it? Just so you know, Mistress Marie, I do not appreciate being casually summoned by someone as measly as you.”

“There’s just one spot that would be difficult for a human to easily access.” Marie continued, ignoring RyuZU’s venom. She had begun to learn how to handle the automaton in the short amount of time she’d known her. “Normally I would use a repair bot, but I’m leaving it to you. Move exactly as I say down to the millimeter, alright?”

“The only one who can order me to do something is—”

“RyuZU, listen to her,” Naoto said.

RyuZU scowled as if she found it disagreeable down to her very core, but nodded begrudgingly in the end.

“......I understand. Feel free to direct me.”

After taking a glance at the diagram, Marie looked at the gauge in her right hand as she quickly did some calculations in her head. She turned to face RyuZU and gave her instructions based on the result from her calculations.

“Turn 91.2 degrees to the left from your current position, then look up 47.5 degrees horizontally, then jump 22.3 meters in that direction; there, turn your body 180 degrees, then look down 75 degrees, then jump 14.25 meters in that direction and land vertically. From there, move 57 centimeters to the right. Find the thirty-third shaft from the right, then locate the seventeenth gear that’s turning it, then look down and right from it 67 degrees. Stick this screwdriver inside the 0.2-millimeter gap that’s there. Inside, there’s a gear 0.7 microns in diameter with a bent tooth. Straighten it without letting the gear stop turning.”

——At this point, it would be more accurate to call it super-precise input commands than instructions.

RyuZU sighed when she finishing receiving the instructions Marie had reeled off in one breath.

“Understood.”

She bowed; the next moment, she had already turned her head and jumped.

Naoto’s eyes widened as they followed RyuZU’s shadow slipping into the group of gears forming the left wall.

Marie stood up while folding the diagram. “Now then, we’re going too. There’re three spots that are difficult to specify orally, so we have to go confirm their locations ourselves. Halter, you come with me while holding onto Naoto.”

“Yes, yes. Well then, you’ll have to excuse me.”

As ordered, Halter reached out with his burly arms, grabbed Naoto, and put him under his arm.

Having been lifted up like luggage, Naoto groaned sadly. “I’m totally being treated as equipment, huh...”

Marie had begun to charge towards where the three spots were. While chasing after her, Halter laughed. “What else can we do? You’re simply too weak. If you’re aspiring to be a clocksmith, then gain some endurance. The job is a physically challenging one where two, three consecutive overnighters are common.”

“Gehh...” Naoto groaned before sighing; however, he wasn’t confident in the slightest that he would be able to keep up with this blistering pace if he were to run on his own feet. He resigned himself to being baggage.

“Then again,” Halter continued, “if we have your power, then that might not be the case in the future.”

“Am I really doing something that significant...?” Naoto mumbled doubtfully.

To which Halter asserted emphatically, “You are. Rather, you’re so handy it’s almost scary. The observation chief was trembling pitifully, you know? He was wondering just what all the work he had done up to now was for.”

“—There’s no need to feel dejected over seeing the perverse ability of a pervert like this,” whispered Marie coldly. She had caught up before Naoto had realized it.

Halter slapped his own head. “...Princess. Though he leaves much to be desired, he’s still the messiah that saved us from a huge crisis and absolute despair. You shouldn’t call him a pervert.”

“If someone who can discover all malfunctions in a three-kilometer radius just by sitting silently for ten minutes isn’t a pervert, then who is?”

“...Meh, I’m used to being called a pervert, so whatever, but—hold up,” Naoto said.

Marie and Halter stopped abruptly in their tracks.

Still being held, Naoto turned his head. “—It’s that gear over there. The fourth one from the right.”

He pointed downwards with his finger.

Marie bent forward past the walkway’s guardrail and confirmed it.

There was a group of gears that moved up and down as they turned. The parts that were moving like a piston were all the same shape. Among them, just the fourth one from the right was half a second late. “—Got it. It’s that one, right?”

Naoto nodded in return, but his eyebrows were furrowed.

The faulty part was suspended in the air twenty meters directly beneath them. There was nowhere to stand, and because other mechanisms were in the way as well, descending on a rope wouldn’t work, either.

He turned to face Marie, asking, “What should we do? Go back and fetch a repair bot?”

“You’re joking. We don’t have that kind of time.” Marie answered succinctly as she tossed off her coat.

She continued to climb over the railing before jumping off with nothing but her clothes, falling towards the group of gears as they continued to turn.

“Hey—!” Naoto yelled out in a panic.

“Relax, there’s no need to worry.” Halter laughed as he gently pulled Naoto back by his shoulder. “Watch carefully. These are the techniques of the number-one Meister of our time.”

—And then, Naoto witnessed a miracle.

Marie landed silently on a shaft, then crouched down and jumped once again. Screws, cylinders, wires, springs, and gears were operating in complex manners. She slipped through all of that with movements as nimble as a cat’s as she approached the malfunctioning gear.

She moved at a terrifyingly quick speed and without stopping for even a single moment. The group of gears in operation were strong, heavy, and sharp enough to easily tear a human body to pieces should they come into contact with one, yet the girl flew past them without any hesitation whatsoever.

Lastly, Marie kicked off from a rotating cylinder before hooking her feet onto a single, thin grate.

As she swung into an upside-down position from her momentum, the fourth gear just happened to be passing in front of her. The slender, pale legs extending from her shorts were awfully dazzling.

However—perhaps she had gained too much momentum, as tools were falling right out of the belt wound around one of her thighs. At least, that’s how it looked to Naoto.

However, those tools didn’t fall. Marie would grab one, use it, and then toss it up. She was repeating this.

The tools danced through the air just like juggling balls, revolving around a fixed point in front of her.

Screws, wires, and gears traced an ellipse in front of Marie as they danced in the air like gravity didn’t exist, then fell back down into her hands. She was moving so fast that her hands were forming afterimages. While upside-down, no less.

It was terrifyingly quick work. A superhuman feat. Naoto shivered and forgot to breathe as he was mesmerized by the sight in front of him.

He gasped, muttering, “Ama...zing... So that’s a Meister...!”

Halter smiled wryly. “Don’t try to mimic her. Even a Meister would normally use a repair bot here or assemble a scaffold to work from before starting the repair.”

“...Then what’s up with that?” Naoto asked, purring.

To which Halter answered, “Though her ability may be different from yours, the princess is a fine genius in her own right. Her title ‘youngest Meister in the world’ isn’t just for show.”

“...I can’t get enough of this,” Naoto moaned.

It was the peak.

The zenith.

Sure, her divine technique was a beauty to behold; that much was a given. But even moreso, what about the elegant tone of the symphony being conducted by her hands? It was music Naoto had never heard before.

Naoto had always found sounds made by humans to be unpleasant; they were nothing but uneven and irregular. Yet, in the composition titled “Marie” being performed in front of him at this very moment, everything, from her pulse to her breathing and even the squeaking between her bones and muscles, was in perfect harmony.

“Hahah... ahahahah!” He couldn’t resist laughing.

A splitting sense of excitement boiled up inside his chest.

One day—

Will I be able to make such sounds?

Marie’s work had ended in what seemed like less than a minute. However, to Naoto, who thoroughly etched all of it into his eyes and ears, it felt like it had lasted several tens, no, hundreds of times longer.

She returned the dancing tools to her belt like a sleight of hand. The magician herself had on a nonchalant face as she climbed back up without making any noise and as smoothly and swiftly as she had descended.

Marie flipped herself over the rails like a circus performer before landing back on the walkway, and then she glared. “What are you spacing out for? We’re moving on to the next spot immediately!”

She broke into a squall-like charge again.

Breaking into a dash himself as he chased after her, Halter gave Naoto a wink.

“—What’d I say? She’s the best, right?”

●

Three hours later...

The staff, who had gathered back in the central corridor after finishing their jobs, were gulping as they listened to the observation chief read out the values of various parameters from their gauges.

“......and Brownian motion, normal value. Items to confirm—All clear.”

“Then, this means that...” Marie muttered, her voice tense.

The observation chief slowly raised his face up away from the gauges as the staff present all watched him. His expression was a strange, distorted one. Big teardrops had welled up at the corners of his eyes and were spilling over.

“The repair... is a success. I can’t believe it...!” he reported with a shrill yell.

The staff looked at each other, their exhausted, sullied faces saying, Is it really over? Did we really do it? Can we celebrate now?

However, little by little, cheers began to erupt from among them... before exploding.

“““Yahoo————————————!!”””

The space was filled with loud cheering. With complete disregard of their age, tears wet their wrinkled, stoic faces. The elderly veterans yelled, their merry voices echoing throughout the corridor.

“You’re kidding me! Can you believe it?! We actually did it!”

“Hahahahaha! Dammit, I better not be dreaming!”

“Dear God...! I’ll be going to church when I get back! I’ll dump all the cash I have on me onto the donation plate!”

While some were hammering the floor with their fists and others were rolling about on the ground, a certain someone left the crowd.

It was an old man with a splendid goatee—Service Chief Konrad.

He came in front of the automaton leaning against the wall some distance from the commotion and the boy—Naoto—sitting next to her.

“Can I have a word?” he asked in a rich, gentle voice.

“—Eh? Ah... ahh, yes.”

“Thanks,” he stated his gratitude concisely, then sat down himself.

Naoto looked a little tense. The service chief turned a tender gaze towards him before slowly lowering his head. “We were saved because of you today. My name is Konrad. What’s your name?”

“Ah... It’s Naoto. Naoto Miura.”

“I see.” The service chief nodded. He then straightened his posture and bowed once again, formally this time. “Mr. Naoto Miura. I deeply apologize for my colleagues saying disrespectful things earlier. Because of you, our lives, Dr. Marie’s life, and above all, the lives of the twenty million residents of this city were saved. Thank you so much. I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart.”

Naoto’s eyes darted about. It was the first time in his life that he had been thanked so earnestly, and by a fine adult at that.

Becoming somewhat embarrassed, he looked away, saying, “Ah—...No, you give me too much credit. I simply pointed out the places where I heard unpleasant sounds coming from. The ones who actually fixed them were Marie and everyone else.”

“There’s no need to be modest. Without your power, there’s no doubt that we wouldn’t have even known where to begin.”

The elderly man’s assertiveness made Naoto gulp.

He darted his eyes about, looking flustered, opened and closed his hands several times for no reason, and shrugged his shoulders meekly before turning to face the elder in front of him.

Naoto said timidly, in a quivering voice, “Umm...”

“Yes?”

He asked, “Was I helpful?”

The service chief cracked a smile. “No matter how many times I were to thank you, I don’t think it’d be enough to convey how grateful I am right now.”

Unable to bear it any longer, Naoto looked down.

His eyes burned. An urge to cry out assaulted him. Recalling the awe and frenzy he had felt when talking to Marie after seeing her skills a couple hours back, Naoto trembled. How he had felt then and how he felt now seemed similar, yet different as well. In the end, he couldn’t understand it well despite trying his best to.

What was certain was that it wasn’t a bad feeling.

Naoto felt something soft being laid on top of his hands that were pushing against the floor.

Seeing RyuZU’s face near his own when he lifted his head up, Naoto’s heart skipped a beat. She was smiling gently, as if she had cast her usual venom off somewhere.

The service chief gazed at Naoto as if seeing something heartwarming. “Mr. Naoto. I have a proposal for you: Would you be interested in enrolling in the Academy?”

“‘The Academy’? ...You mean Meister Guild’s?!”

Naoto batted his eyes in astonishment. The service chief nodded. “Right. The specialty school that’s even sometimes called the gateway to success for becoming a Meister.”

“Uhh... b, but if I remember correctly, holding the rank of Geselle is a prerequisite to enrolling there...”

“True, that’s one of the conditions. However, if you have recommendations from two working clocksmiths, you can enroll as a scholarship student. I think the talent you’ve displayed for us today is more than befitting of that. I’ll write one of your letters of recommendation, of course, and as for the other—”

“If that’s the case, I can prepare one.”

Hearing a sing-song voice from above, Naoto looked up. He saw Marie, whose face was one big smile.

“Letting your talent lay dormant would be too much of a waste. Go receive a proper education at the Academy, Naoto Miura. If you acquire the technique and knowledge—and also the character and dignity worthy of a Meister, then you really might be able to become the number-one clocksmith in the world.”

“Marie......... you just casually repudiated my character, didn’t you?”

Naoto glared at Marie with his eyes half-closed.

From his side, RyuZU stated, “It seems that you are finally able to accept reality now, but I see that your understanding is still lacking, you worthless human. Master Naoto is already the greatest clocksmith of all humanity.”

“My, is that so?” Marie put on an impish smirk as she closed one eye, the one closer to RyuZU. “Excuse me, but if he’s going to call himself the number-one clocksmith in the world, he should at least learn to read the layout of a mechanism first. Otherwise, he’ll just look silly, you know?”

RyuZU put on a surly face, but said no more while Naoto made a strained smile.

That was when...

A thunderous roar and shockwave seemed to pierce the core tower through to its very center.

Losing her balance, Marie fell on top of Naoto.

“Gwahh?!” Naoto let out a strange noise from below, but she ignored him and looked up.

“What happened?!”

No one could answer the question she had yelled out. Everyone was panicking from the sudden impact, their minds a mess. Among them, Halter, who had recovered the quickest out of everyone, dashed to the gauges. When he read them, he looked like he was on the verge of panic.

“Hey Marie, this is serious! We’re dropping in altitude!!”

“What?!”

The analysis chief sprang up, practically frothing at the mouth as he pushed Halter aside and read the gauges himself. He immediately glared as his complexion turned paler than paper.

“The purge is beginning!!”

Hearing his scream, the central corridor broke into the very definition of an uproar. All of the staff members doubted their own eyes and sanity and were shrieking while trembling in shock, their complexions faded from terror.

“That can’t be!!”

“This has to be a joke! The city’s malfunction was repaired!”

“And even if it wasn’t, there should still be an hour left before the purge!”

“Don’t tell me that they don’t realize it’s been repaired?!”

“No, if they’re executing the purge, they should have been observing the core tower’s situation.”

“Then why?!”

As the tumultuous furor continued, Halter, who was standing still having missed the timing to panic along with everyone else, said in a low voice as if he had suddenly realized something, “——Could it be that they’re trying to pretend that it was never fixed?”

A terrifying silence fell. The look on everyone’s faces was indescribable.

...That can’t be.

Everyone doubted their own imagination, but even so, they were forced to acknowledge the truth the gauges showed.

The sound of someone sobbing could be heard. The veteran clocksmiths, who were likely second to none when it came to mental strength, crumbled onto the ground, their hearts snapped in twain. The jubilation they had felt from succeeding in the repair only made the despair they were thrust into from the betrayal immediately afterwards all the more unbearable.

“You’re kidding me...” Naoto muttered in a daze.

He couldn’t believe it at all.

—There’s no way someone who could think up such an evil thing and seriously execute it actually exists.

However, cruelly, Naoto was able to perceive it. Around the heart of this metropolis, the linked shafts that connected the city were being uncoupled one after the other.

Naoto’s hearing caught the booming sounds as it happened.

...Was it all over at this point?

Naoto fell to his knees, heartbroken. He felt the word “despair” slowly penetrate and spread throughout his heart. The warm feeling he’d had just before steadily cooled down as its heat dissipated.

Even though,

Even though I was finally able to see something.

——

Just then,

“Doooon’t meeeeeess with meeeeeeee——!!” Marie screeched.

“—Like I’ll let it end like this!!” Marie shouted, her voice so loud that it echoed throughout the corridor. While everyone was sobbing on their knees, just one person was spitting fire as she stood on her two legs, her emerald eyes blazing.

Marie dashed to a nearby table and fiercely began to draw a blueprint. While doing so, she shouted, “Service chief! When this planet was reconstructed, the gravitational controls should have been replaced with clockwork in the city’s mechanisms, right?”

The service chief, though perplexed as to where she was going with this, still nodded and answered, “Y... Yes, that’s correct.

“Is the location of that mechanism known?!”

“It should be on this floor. However, what do you plan to do knowing that?”

Marie didn’t reply, instead turning to address RyuZU next, shouting, “RyuZU! Do you know the principle behind gravity being generated by gears?”

“...By means of the heat and kinetic energy from the gears’ operation, a massive amount of energy is generated,” RyuZU answered dispassionately.

Seemingly satisfied with RyuZU’s answer, Marie bared her canines as she laughed, “Thanks for the explanation. —Indeed, gravity is a phenomenon that occurs from space being bent towards masses and energies that are greater than other ones nearby! As such, can’t you output negative energy with your Imaginary Gear—and cancel out the current gravity?!”

“......It is possible in theory.” Being stared at by Marie, RyuZU answered in a voice full of hesitation before quickly casting her eyes downward. “However, if I use my one gear to reverse the gravity that is covering the entire city right now, I do not know just how long my gear will last.”

“Can you give me an estimate?”

“...Thinking wishfully, about thirty minutes, I believe.”

“That’s more than enough. If you can buy us that much time, we can relink the shafts by manipulating the controls opposite of what they’re doing from here!”

Marie cracked her knuckles as she curled her lips.

However, Naoto jumped up and wedged himself between Marie and RyuZU.

“Hey, wait up. What are you saying? Just what are you planning to make RyuZU do?”

Marie met his gaze with her own. She said in order to confirm his understanding, “Listen up. The reason this city is falling in the purge right now is due to gravity. And that gravity is being generated and governed by a mechanism on this floor.”

“...And?”

“If we interfere with that system by generating a reverse gravity proportional to the one causing the city to fall, we can avert the collapse of this city temporarily. All that’d be left to do would be to hack into the system responsible for the purge and relink the shafts in the meantime.”

Despite Marie’s explanation, Naoto looked suspicious. “Hold up... hacking into the system responsible for the purge? If you can do that, then why didn’t you do that from the beginning?”

“I couldn’t though.” Answering Naoto’s question readily, Marie continued, “I only became able to do so just a little while back. I was able to deduce the root structure from the layout of this floor that you described to me. As for the concrete details—I can finish this diagram within five minutes.”

The veteran staff members’ eyes widened at Marie’s statement. Even the service chief looked like his jaw was about to fall off as he stared at Marie. Such a feat of technical prowess was something that sounded impossible even for Meisters like themselves.

Naoto consciously exhaled to calm himself. “Then, what’s this talk about there being a chance that RyuZU won’t be able to endure the process?”

“...It’ll mean that we jam that small Imaginary Gear of RyuZU’s into the center of a system that manages gravity and a large amount of energy. If we fail, her gear will break into pieces on the spot, and even if we succeed, her gear will still break if things go on for too long.”

“That’s a no then.” After cutting down Marie’s proposal on the spot, Naoto turned around towards RyuZU. “RyuZU, would you make it if you escaped starting now?”

“That is impossible.”

“What are you saying? If it’s just you by yourself, you should be able to escape with the maneuverability you demonstrated when you wrecked those military automata—”

“I said that that is impossible. The option to leave Master Naoto behind and escape by myself does not exist within me.”

“We’re all screwed either way then, aren’t we! What are you suggesting that I do?!” Naoto shouted angrily.

However, RyuZU shook her head and pointed at Marie. “That is not true, Master Naoto. If I sacrifice myself as this self-proclaimed girl genius proposes, we can overcome this crisis.”

The observation chief, whose face was thoroughly pale, latched on to RyuZU’s words.

“—! Can you really do something like that?!”

Naoto turned around. “No she can’t, you dumbass!!”

“I can,” RyuZU declared dispassionately.

It seemed like Naoto had touched a nerve, for the observation chief shouted as his forehead creased. “What are you talking about?! If there’s a way to save the city, then—”

“I told you that she can’t! Did you not hear the part where RyuZU will be sacrificed?!”

“But—a single automaton against twenty million lives—”

“I don’t care whether it’s twenty million or two hundred million!! Are you telling me that you would kill the most precious person to you in the world without hesitation if you learned that the world would be saved if she died?!”

Naoto looked like he was going to lunge at the observation chief any time now. The observation chief quailed from seeing Naoto’s menacing expression.

“P, Please calm down. ‘The most precious person to you in the world’? ...She’s an automaton.”

“Yeah, she’s an automaton, so what?” Naoto said with an expression that couldn’t be more serious. Ignoring the flabbergasted observation chief, Naoto turned around and stated sharply, “This is an order, RyuZU. Escape right this moment.”

“I refuse.”

An automaton refused a clear order from her master.

RyuZU paid no mind as everyone was left speechless. She continued, “An unthinkable action like letting Master Naoto die—I shall firmly refuse by exercising my free will.”

“RyuZU.” Naoto’s voice had become rough.

Notwithstanding, RyuZU said with a joking look on her face, “How about you think about it this way? Just by leaving me in a dysfunctional state, you will obtain a magnificent automaton—my little sister AnchoR—though not as magnificent as me. Aside from that, you will be able do whatever you want with my remaining body by taking advantage of me not being able to move. If you consider the twenty million human lives equal to a large heap of refuse that will also be saved as a cheap bonus to all that, then how about it? It is just barely worth it, no?”

“It isn’t worth it at all.” Naoto immediately answered without so much as the hint of a smile.

RyuZU bowed once, saying, “I see. —Then, how about this?”

RyuZU curtsied as she lowered her head again, saying, “An extremely incompetent automaton who had proposed something that threatened Master Naoto’s life chose to destroy herself to atone for her incompetence, so you should at least make good use of her parts... What do you think?”

“Wha—, t?”

Faster than Naoto could get a sense of suspicion from those words.

—Correction, faster than those words could reach his brain.

The black scythe that flew out of her fluttering skirt left time itself behind—

As it pierced RyuZU herself.

“———”

He couldn’t understand.

His brain was refusing to comprehend the sight in front of him.

“Master Naoto... I have no doubt—that you can do it.”

RyuZU quietly stopped operating right in front of Naoto with a smile on her face.

Hooked onto the tip of the scythe that had pierced her chest was a small gear as black as night.

—The Imaginary Gear.

“...Don’t... fuck with me...”

Naoto, whose brain had finally taken in the reality in front of him, squeezed the air from his lungs, yelling, “Don’t fuck with me, damn it! What do you think you’re doing, leaving me behind as you please?! I—I didn’t come here for an outcome like this! Fuck this!!”

No sooner had he yelled than he seized RyuZU’s Imaginary Gear.

...He had no confidence that he’d be able to fix her.

It wasn’t like previously when she was just hibernating. It wasn’t just the damage from the black scythe piercing her chest. Because she had forcefully extracted an important part of hers, its sympathetic resonance with her other gears had been forcefully interrupted, causing micro deviations throughout her entire body.

However, even so—Naoto reached his hand toward RyuZU.

“Naoto.” Marie grabbed his hand before he could reach her.

“Let go of me! If, if I don’t put this back where it was immediately—”

Marie yelled at Naoto, who had practically been reduced to a state of derangement, “Naoto Miura!”

“I told you to let go, didn’t I?!”

“—Just listen to me!!” Marie shouted back as she clutched Naoto’s collar and held him up.

While glaring into Naoto’s ashen eyes like she was going to bite, she whispered in a low voice, “Listen. Pound this into that empty head of yours. I didn’t say a single word about sacrificing RyuZU. I only outlined my current plan and its risk.”

“That’s the same thing!”

“It’s totally different. Risks are risks. They’re just possibilities. In reality, things will never come to that. Trust me, I’ll fix RyuZU back to how she was. So you lend a hand too, alright?”

“...You need me too?” Naoto muttered, looking like he didn’t believe her.

Marie asserted emphatically, “That’s right. I was able to grasp the layout of this floor thanks to you, but to make this plan succeed, I have to understand the entirety of the Core Tower. For that, I need your ears—your ‘talent’—no matter what.”

Naoto sank into silence. Marie lowered herself onto her knees and held his face with both of her hands as she continued, “I trusted you earlier. This time, you trust me.”

“......”

“I promise: If you lend me your strength, everyone will be saved. Whether it’s you, RyuZU, or this city, I’ll definitely do something about this and save them all.”

“...I don’t see any basis for your claims.”

“There is a basis. It’s—” Marie paused, squeezing one hand into a fist and placing it against her chest.

She adjusted her breathing before firing herself up—and yelling, “Because—I’m Marie Bell Breguet!!”

Naoto’s ashen eyes opened wide.

Marie’s emerald eyes shone bright. “Believe in my ability, Naoto Miura! I am a daughter of the Breguet family. A daughter of the man who used to be the number-one clocksmith in the world. The younger sister of the woman who is the current number-one clocksmith in the world. I broke that woman’s record in becoming the youngest person to ever become a Meister!”

“——”

“I’m a woman who’ll never believe that something’s impossible!!”

As a chilling sense of awe ran through Naoto’s chest, he thought, She’s dazzling.

Ahh goddammit, I don’t have any talent after all. Who’s the genius? This girl’s the genius. A real genius—A real genius’s talent is something that glitters brilliantly like this.

He lowered his gaze to the automaton in his arms. Even now, when she had stopped functioning, RyuZU’s golden eyes continued to reflect Naoto inside them. She was wearing a gentle smile on her face without a single cloud of doubt that displayed trust, no, even conviction.

Naoto groaned quietly, then sank into silence.

—A true genius, who was so talented that it was frightening, had told him this:

“If you lend me a hand, I’ll definitely save everyone.”

—RyuZU had given her absolute trust in entrusting her gear to him.

“Master Naoto, I have no doubt that you can do it.”

“——Really.”

If I have that kind of power...

Naoto grasped the Imaginary Gear in his hand tightly and raised his face.

Facing Marie, whose eyes were blazing in emerald flames, head-on, he bit his lips.

Light wavered in his ashen eyes.

“...Please, tell me, Marie.” He inquired, “What should I do?”

●

The periphery around the heart of Kyoto Grid was a large framework that supported the enormous moving part that was the city.

The gigantic cylinder, which had twenty-seven floors in total, reached fifty thousand meters in diameter, and was ninety thousand meters in height, was connected to four million shafts, which linked the entire city. In the periphery of that cylinder were mechanisms that had been installed to allow the shafts to be released. Those mechanisms were a system originally intended to be used in emergencies as a last resort.

Even if some gears were to fall out, the Clockwork Planet had been made so it could maintain its systems by making the remaining gears mutually compensate for those that were missing. However, if gears were to continue to be lost, the number of remaining gears would decrease. Each individual gear would thus have more burden placed on it, which would cause it to heavily wear down.

Therefore, a purge was a last resort and nothing if not the worst method to contain malfunctions that could shorten the planet’s lifespan.

However...

Right now, in the periphery of this city of Kyoto, that worst method was being continuously executed.

“...The release of all shafts connected to the twenty-sixth floor is confirmed!” an operator wearing a military uniform exclaimed.

A large man stood in the center of the control room. He yelled in a loud, echoing voice, “Good! Begin the release of the last set of shafts!”

Obeying his words, the group of twenty Technical Force clocksmiths operated the interface of the purge system. All of them had dark looks on their faces. They knew what their actions would result in, that the twenty million city residents would be killed. They also knew that the purpose of the purge was to conceal the military’s blunder.

This was, unsurprisingly, too much for even them, despite having been trained to loyally obey orders. They were unable to feel pride and a sense of duty in executing such an operation.

Seeing their expressions, the man in the center of the floor—the commanding officer—clicked his tongue lightly.

—My goodness, youngsters these days.

This operation couldn’t be dismissed as a simple cover-up. The military’s dignity and authority, as well as the public peace they protected, were at stake—In other words, it was a noble mission to maintain “order.”

—To lose their bearings over a sacrifice on this level, they absolutely lack resolve!

That brat from the Meister Guild was the same. Obsessing over the lives of a mere twenty million, does she not even have enough of a brain to realize what kind of harm injuring the military’s dignity will cause? What ‘genius’? A sixteen-year-old kid being a Meister? Please, it’s obvious that she used her connections. Filthy scum.

“—All signals confirmed. Connection to the release system complete. Preparations for the last stage complete,” the operator said.

The commander raised his head. He sneered as he handed down the order.

“Alright, then begin the countdown!”

“Understood. Beginning countdown. —Five, four, three...” A dispassionate, emotionless voice counted down.

The clocksmiths who had completed their work gazed at the gauges with somewhat blank expressions. Though the commander’s lips were pressed together, the corners of his mouth curved slightly upward.

“Two, one—Release the last system of shafts!” the operator yelled in an ever so slightly shrill voice.

And then...

“——”

“——”

...

“...? What?”

The metropolis didn’t fall.

At least, no response showed on the gauges, and the rumbling that should have begun to some degree was also absent.

“What’s the problem?! What’s going on?!” the commander yelled. The clocksmiths and the operator checked their operation logs and the gauges once again.

After a short time, the operator exclaimed, “It’s a gravitational anomaly!”

“What?” The commander tilted his head, looking perplexed. “Shouldn’t that be the malfunction in the city mechanisms? What does that have to do with the failure of the purge we just did...?”

“Yes—I mean, no. This is a colossal gravitational response coming from the bottom of the city... No way! It’s lifting the city!!”

“...What are you saying?”

“I, In other words—”

“I can only think that someone is obstructing the purge by manipulating the gravitational controls.”

A heavy silence fell.

After which, the commander suddenly screeched, “Don’t give me that crap!! Just who and how—” All of a sudden, his eyes, which had become bloodshot from rage and agitation, opened as wide as they could.

He ground his teeth, looking shocked. “Don’t tell me that it’s that brat—?!”

●

The mechanism that controlled gravity was in the 289th control block on the twenty-fourth floor. It lay in a deep location where even the illumination from the light gears installed throughout the floor didn’t reach it well. The sum of a great number of thick shafts that were joined together, its majestic appearance looked not unlike a giant, ancient tree that had lived for several thousands of years. Its nucleus lay in a place that was partially hidden by its roots.

Marie was grappling with a circuit board that looked as complex as the anatomy of a living creature as she stared at the gauges. Naoto, who had taken a seat by her feet, was holding the automaton that had stopped moving in his arms. A wide, hollow hole was exposed in that automaton’s—RyuZU’s—chest. The Imaginary Gear that had been inserted in her chest was now crammed into the nucleus of the gravitational mechanism in front of them.

Naoto whispered quietly, “—Marie, three military helicopters are approaching.”

“Where are they?”

“Thirty-five degrees northwest, around 24,906 meters away from us.”

“That’s above the 192nd ward...They must be planning to obstruct the relinking.” Marie fiddled with something by her hands. Immediately after, Naoto’s ears caught the splitting roar of three explosions.

A cry rang out from the intercom on the wall.

“Dr. Marie! Explosions near the 192nd ward were detected—!”

“—Is there a problem?” Marie answered dispassionately.

“N, No. It doesn’t impede our work in any way.”

“Then please continue working. It was just some military helicopters falling due to a slight disturbance in the atmospheric pressure. There’s no problem.”

The voice from the intercom was left speechless.

Paying that exchange no mind, Naoto again announced in a quiet, detached voice, “Marie, this time it’s twenty-four degrees southwest, around 24,589 meters away.”

“Roger.” Marie answered quietly as well.

Naoto’s ears again perceived explosions in the far distance.

The staff must have detected those explosions too, for a gulp could be heard from the intercom. Marie faced the intercom and said quietly, “Can you hear me?”

“Y, Yes...”

“We’ll eliminate the hindrances that the military send. We have our hands full here between that and managing the gravitational controls, so I’m leaving the relinking to you guys. Please reconnect the shafts as soon as humanly possible.”

“Un, Understood...!”

“Naoto. The fifth floor’s circuit won’t seem to connect. What’s going on?”

“—The fifth cylinder in operation right now isn’t in place. A different system that sits a meter right above it is causing interference. To sidestep it, turn the first cylinder clockwise by thirty-four degrees.”

“Got it, the water collection system, right? —OK, connection successful.”

The values on the gauges fluctuated dramatically, showing that yet another system had been connected. Naoto observed, and Marie handled the controls.

This unknown system output reverse gravity, something that hadn’t even existed until now. By changing the levels, Marie was keeping the super-enormous mass that was this great metropolis level. Acting as her eyes, Naoto was constantly observing the core tower’s structure and the situation of the entire city through sound.

Naoto waved the baton to which Marie played her instrument. Their two differing talents meshed together tightly, increasing each other’s potential. This on-the-spot jam session was producing music that made it seem like the two had been playing together for years. It was almost like a symphony only they could perform.

“——” ...Seeing such a sight, Halter’s eyes widened as he remained silent.

Seizing city functions one after another, resisting the purge, and eliminating the military’s interference by manipulating the atmospheric pressure controls on the twenty-fourth floor—causing turbulent air to burst downward and spawn a dustdevil.

Seeing the duo’s “performance,” Halter only had one thought on his mind. “Is this really a human feat...?”

He had witnessed the evolution of Marie’s genius many times before. It was also true that he had been startled by Naoto’s unusual ability that, at this point, might as well have been considered ESP.

However, this composition they were performing hand in hand—

Seizing, ruling, controlling, and manipulating a metropolis—a microcosm of the world—Were humans really performing this feat?

What surfaced in Halter’s mind was just a single, certain letter.

The rebuilder of the planet whose very existence was questioned due to his preposterous enterprise beyond all imagination. The initial of the figure whose real name was unknown, extolled as the supreme genius in all of human history—“Y.”

People had forgotten how absurd his feat truly was because a planet being run on clockwork was just “normal” now. Indeed, this planet that had met its end had been recreated by a human. It had been designed by someone who had been neither a convenient magician nor a god, but just a human.

However, at this very moment, Halter could see two small figures who had conquered even gravity, dictating it as they held the lives of twenty million people in the palms of their hands.

At this very moment—What objection could there have been against calling them “gods”?

...He had nothing to base it on, but he was certain. More than likely—no—surely, undoubtedly, this right here—

—Was the figure of the one who had reconstructed the world—“Initial Y.”

“—God, I can’t get enough of this.”

Seeing the two gods who had the city under their thumbs, Halter got the feeling that that impossibility had just been thoroughly repudiated. As he stroked his bald head, Halter could only smile wryly.

“—Marie, the gear has started to creak.”

When Marie heard that, her eyelids twitched. Having continually negated an enormous amount of energy, RyuZU’s Imaginary Gear was reaching its limits.

Without looking away, Marie tapped the console’s controls. “...Not yet. I need ten more seconds.”

A sharp voice rang from the intercom. “Dr. Marie! The main balance wheel is off by 0.2 degrees!”

Again, Marie tapped the console’s controls.

“...! The alignment matched! Angle adjustment complete. Connecting the circuit!”

“Marie! The gear’s at its limit!!”

“Give me six more seconds, I’ll start the countdown!”

Five.

Naoto stood up.

Four.

Marie turned around.

Three.

Their eyes met.

Two.

Emerald eyes and ashen eyes exchanged a message that couldn’t be put into words—

One.

A thunderous boom pierced through the Core Tower.

“Linkage complete!!”

Naoto had pulled the Imaginary Gear from the gravitational system before the voice even reached his ears.

He screamed, “Marie!!”

“Hand it over!!”

Snatching the gear from Naoto’s hand, Marie lunged towards RyuZU. The gear was slightly bent. However, given that it had been able to generate reverse gravity to the very end, it should have no problem functioning.

Marie moved her hands about savagely. She quickly amended the slight bend and adjusted its lattice before threading a wire through the gear and placing them into a cylinder as fast as lightning. Despite being someone who was deeply rational, she ignored the cries of her reason and logic against this clockwise-turning gear that output counterclockwise energy. That was just how this thing worked. She simply accepted it and continued working. She inserted a spring into place and screwed it on.

Marie closed RyuZU’s artificial skin. “Wind her spring!”

Without having to be told to do so, Naoto had already reached his hands towards the screw.

“——”

As an ominous silence fell, only the sound of Naoto winding her spring rang shrilly.

...Could it be that she won’t wake up anymore?

That terrifying fear crossed Naoto’s mind.

Each time the spring turned fragilely, a cold sense of loss seeped deeper and deeper into his heart.

...Eventually, after what felt like an eternity had passed,

“——Ah.”

RyuZU opened her jeweled eyes. They glittered like gold and shook unsteadily, and she blinked over and over. Her indecipherable gaze slowly began to shift before settling on Naoto. As the lips that were like those of an angel moved, a high, ringing voice like a music box spilled out.

“Ahh—Master Naoto.”

She smiled gently.

“Your face is already unappealing to begin with. If you weep your eyes out on top of that, no one will be able to look at you, you know.”

While spewing venom with her sharp tongue, RyuZU gracefully reached her hand towards Naoto. However, contrary to her sharp words, her eyes were glistening and her cheeks had reddened sweetly. Seeing her like that, a gentle smile came to Naoto’s face. He stroked her hair, then took her hand.

They began to cry at the same time.

The abusive speech filter inside the girl made a small, pleasant sound.