Vol 4 Chapter 41 (1/2)
Chapter 41: Oppressor from Above
What ends up like that
Before you know it?
Point Allocation (When You Look Up)
It was a place of shadows
The entire perilass blocked out the light A shi+p’s deck extended far beyond thatand the room itself had decorative columns and walls
That was the large observation deck on the rear of the Jurakudai, a PA Oda diplomatic shi+p
The fifty meter diameter space was soaked in darkness, but the center contained a light that cast no shadows
It was bluish-white ether light
It remained in the center of the cylindrical space without illus
The blue light was contained within and leaking from two beds Their harp-like forms were decorated with irl stood next to the other and inside it…
“Hidetsugu-sama…”
The boy with a single dragon horn lay on the bed with his eyes closed His feet faded away to shoas a ghost and his illusory body was soaking in the blue ether light leaking from the bottom end of the bed
That ether light enveloped him and pulsated
The ghost girl watching him was of course Komahime
She peered down at him and spoke
“Do you think I’veon Date and Sviet Rus as Mogami instead of a subordinate to Hashi+ba”
She tilted her head and s boy her questions
“What do you think that final shot meant…?”
However, her question fell apart as she asked it The ends of her eyebrows drooped weakly
“I know you’re not going to answer This was forced frorets”
She forced a s head Then her hand reached the bed on which Hidetsugu slept
The light supported her It passed along the hand on the edge of the bed, circled around her entire body, and…
“Ah”
Her forrew stronger, and two tails pushed out from the butt of the inner suit hosts The shape of her hands and the slant of her ently rose
“————”
She trembled and stepped back from the bed However, her left hand shook and did not corabbed her left arht hand to pull the hand away And finally…
“…I’m back to normal”
The ears remained, but as far as she could see in the mirror she held, the slant of her mouth and cheeks had vanished “It would look fine if I hadthe butt of her suit
“Are you okay? There was a zap just now, so you probably shouldn’t touch that too much”
Someone stepped in from the stairway up to the observation deck
It was a woman in a simple PA Oda uniform with her hair worn up
“Niwa-sama…”
Kohtly harsh tone to her voice, so she bowed
“Sorry You are looking after e myself properly”
“Shaja It’s fine, it’s fine No one can e themselves properly, so don’t worry about it And even if you couldweird would happen to throw it all out of whack …More ie for another round of piloting practice to get youranother two rounds and you would have the skill needed for a temporary license”
“Thank you very iven a fleet back in Mogae your attitude, Niwa-sama”
Nias acting quite differently fro so harshly toward Musashi+ and the Oushuu forces There was a smile on her face and there was real life to it It was not just for show
She could readily switch between combat and normal times
…Date’s Katakura also switched back and forth pretty spectacularly…
Ko crazy, but if he could do that sort of thing during battle,severely wrong when demonstratives were the only words one could use to describe him
But Niwa took a breath and looked to Hidetsugu’s bed and the for on it
“I do feel bad about all this …He still exists as a ghost, but his consciousness isn’t entirely there For our purposes, he’s beco like a doll”
“Why don’t you call that convenient?”
Ko too harsh, but she asked anyway
“PA Oda is a wonderful place,” replied Niwa “If he was only conscious, I aet him to side with us I am 2 of the Five Great Peaks after all”
“Sorry for being so conceited”
“It’s fine, it’s fine” Niwa smiled “It’s true he’ll do whatever we tell him to, but we can only tell him to walk or to stop Personally, I’d prefer it if he was conscious That wouldBut…”
“But?”
“Being a girl is tough at times like this”
Niwa crossed her ar like she could see everything about Komahime
“Noro of everything from the past to prepare yourself for the search for the next person”
“Oh” A thought ca bitterly “When she thought it was about tiami, my mother had me choose which of my old possessions I couldn’t take with me That was really, really hard”
“She probably wanted you to let go of your regrets and gain a freedo to leave your inherited naami’s leader is kind yet cruel”
Niwa nodded toward Komahime with a smile
“Foxes care for their families, but the parent and the child eventually part ways …When the child is ed parent would only be a hindrance after all”
“If either of us is a hindrance, it’s me…”
After saying that, Ko, quickly took a step back, and bowed
“Sorry! I’m on this side now, aren’t I!?”
“We aren’t divided between eneht now, so it’s fine Just make sure you stick with us e are”
Niwa shrugged, looked over to Hidetsugu’s bed, and sighed
“Hashi+ba see pretty down about this”
“Hashi+ba-sama is?”
“Shaja …Hashi+ba is a very calculating-…no, that’s not quite right Maybe I should say she’s alht that would minimize the sacrifices It’s just that there are several different ways ofone of them”
“You mean…?”
“Shaja” Niwa faced Ko the sacrifice out to as le person who can handle it”
Niered her eyebrows a little and brushed up her hair
“She places that role on herself quite frequently And given what is to come, the rest of us usually do whatever we can to keep her fro behind the scenes But at times, she decides someone else is the same as her …No, she decides that other person is different fro on that much”
“Um,” said Komahime as she took half a step forward “I am fine”
She glanced over at Hidetsugu on the bed, but Niwa shook her head
“You are not fine After all…”
Niwa looked up and Ko was visible behind and over Hidetsugu’s head
So there like awith no physical for from it
“A mechanical arm…”
It was a God of war arm The blue draconic arm did not have a physical for surface
As it had no physical forht, but its size and ether
“That thing is trouble”
Niwa avoided the wavering ether light that slowly formed the God of war arht
“Day in and day out, it growsup more andHidetsugu, so the Jurakudai’s fuelballistic”
“Sorry…”
“Heh heh Apologizing for her husband’s iood habit for a wife”
“No, um, that’s not what I, um…”
Komahime trailed off when she noticed the ath in her eyebrows
“Lady Korets in this world So did Hidetsugu That is why you both retained so rets did not fit well together…”
Niwa stopped there, looked to the unon horn boy, and simply nodded
“You are not fine …And Hashi+ba agrees with me”
“Hashi+ba-sama does?”
“Shaja” Niwa nodded again “That is why she hasn’t returned here She doesn’t knohat to say to you She’s feeling down because she thinks she should have placedlike that, it’ll interfere hat’s to come”
Four silhouettes parted ways in the sky
The a to their homes or the castles where their main academies were
Date ami north-northwest, Sviet Rus west, and…
“PA Oda is going south to Edo”
Masazumi looked in all four directions and then into the sky directly overhead
She saw the rectangular shape of the armored diplomatic shi+p she needed to return to the Musashi+
“We need to get ourselves ready on the Musashi+ This situation is urgent”
“Heh heh We’ve already been rushi+ng things plenty What good will rushi+ng things even further do?”
Unfortunately, Masazus But Hidetsugu had arrived to ami had shown a refusal to obey
“The balance of power Hashi+ba created across Oushuu, Kantou, and Sviet Rus ht just collapse”
“Hm? What makes you say that, Masazumi?”
“I’ll explain later If possible, I want to gain a consensus on that and sos with the diplomats we sent out to the three nations”
She had a lot to think about Or rather, the nunificantly
And that included a lot to worry about
…Will Futayo be all right with her injuries?
She had been sent back to the Ariake ahead of the others, but that meant their Vice Chancellor had lost to Hashi+ba The people on the Ariake would not have been able to see it, but the people in the village of Mito had seen it
There was also the false infor attacked aboard the Musashi+ from before Everyone would still reerous if it reached their ears
Masazumi had made sure to instruct Ookubo and the PR Committee to report that there was a problem with the Tonbo Spare, but that she had driven off Hashi+ba’s Ten Spears with some help from the 5th Special Duty Officer and others If anyone insisted the Vice Chancellor had lost, they just had to heal Futayo’s wounds and let everyone see the girl unharmed
And the cootiations with the three nations would be a h event to erase that smaller incident from people’s minds So…
“The question is how to handle the negotiations with the three nations”
“In your opinion, Masazumi, ill that be?”
Masazu up into the sky where the three fleets of those nations were only tiny dots in different directions
Even if they returned to their headquarters, they would still need to regroup themselves after the day’s events
“A lot happened, so I doubt they will finish that today I have to preface this with ‘most likely’, but I doubt the three nations ant any other nation getting ahead of theht”
“I see Then should I secure a line to use in case we need to do a real-tiht? …Huh?”
Asan frame by her hand and tilted her head
“I just got a divine ht over there’”
“Heh heh heh Way to go, Asahter’s hand before she’s even married!? Or is it a test to see if she’ll fit in one of et the following stat increases: Spiritual+5 Shooting+99 I down the i!”
“Stop deciding things for me!”
Asama blushed with her eyebrows raised and pointed toward the Aoi Sister and the Ariake
“My dad only said to stay there! Besides, a shrineto do with impurity! …Hm? What is it, Hanami? What’s that new meter?”
Hanan fra meters
When Asama noticed, she eventually tapped Hana and did not turn around There were simply too many of them to close
“What a hardworking Mouse”
“I feel like she’s gotten especially hardworking lately…”
Meanwhile, a wind blew in It was the diploh of relief that they were finally e At the very least, she felt they had what they needed to get thingsBut…
“Hey!”
Soe of the diplomatic shi+p It was Naomasa
Is she here to greet us? wondered Masazumi, but then Naruze in her summer uniform flew from the deck on her brooh the sky on her way doard them
“What is it? There’s too uards”
“We’ve got some trouble The Committee Leader Alliance has taken action”
Naruze shrugged as she explained and she held her pal
“I’d call it a rebellion, but I bet they’re calling it an uprising to bring peace”
“…What?”
Masazumi and Asama expressed confusion and the Aoi Sister smiled with her eyebroered, so Naruze pointed to the diploe, but someone else was a few meters away from her
…Students with rifles
“Those are…underclassmen from the Public Morals Committee”
Asa the fact for herself
That hen Masazuht on
“So the Committee Leader Alliance that works for the Student Council is rising up against the Student Council and the Chancellor’s Officers”
She knehy She knew all too well
Their defeat
Since the defeat three weeks before, they had been doing their best to not pro the people and they had been prioritizing the work on the Musashi+’s modifications In Masazu toward their next move
However, those who knew more of the true state of affairs were different Most likely…
…Have they decided further war is nothing but a danger!?
Once she understood, Masazumi let all of her emotions leak out
“This is no ti that!”