Volu 4B, Chapter 53: Lacking One in a Field of mories
Damage
To sothing precious
Created my current skill
Point Allocation (mory)
Suzu ca to a new understanding of the main garden.
She could sense all the way to the far wall of the approximately hundred ter space, but that was not because there was less information than during the day.
The density had cleared out. During the day, there had been heat, slls, humidity, and more rising from the ground and wavering as they vied for her attention, but that was different now. It all rose straight up, joined together when they ca into contact, and were more organized.
If the dayti air had been rough waves, then this was several skinny waterfalls rising from earth to heaven.
Those upside-down cascades rose from the entire range of the vegetation. She could reach her hand out and feel a chilly ticklishness that was not quite a sll and not quite transpiration.
…Wow.
She spread her arms to either side and grasped the flowers, plants, ground, and flowing water of this place. The air and humidity reached her skin from the cuffs and collar of the Sviet Rus sumr inner suit she wore for diplomatic purposes, so she felt like she was floating in this place.
And she wondered sothing. If the differences between the many waterfalls were the differences between the flowers and plants…
“Are they…colors?”
There was one thing Suzu did not understand at all: colors.
She understood temperature, humidity, and wind. Thanks to touch, heat, and sound reflection rates, she could generally distinguish between the sky and clouds, water and earth, and clothing and paper. But…
…The “blue” sky…and “blue” clothing…are different.
Her senses saw a great difference between the sky and dyes, so…
…What is similar enough…to the sky, air, rain, and earth…to be used as materials for dyes and paints?
The answer was flowers and plants.
So if she used her perception of those as her basis for “colors”, could she perhaps speak about them with others and understand them herself more smoothly? So on occasion, she would visit the flower bed that Kimi had in the underground agriculture district, speak with Kimi there, and increase the material she could use to judge colors. But…
“Kimi-chan…knows a lot of…weird things…”
She would play a Gagaku song she was working on or perform a dance she was working on.
…And sotis she lets try the fruit wine she’s making in secret. …Yeah.
She also knew the flower language anings of the flowers Suzu was trying to use as a basis for colors.
For example, when Suzu was trying to decide what “red” was…
“If you use that flower for ‘red’, then red inside you will probably be ‘shy embarrassnt’. Or I suppose it could also an ‘I am perfect for you’.”
That latter option had seed like too much, so she had chosen another. But when she had chosen a different one, Kimi had asked “Are you sure?” while sounding fairly worried. That was how she had created colors within herself, but…
…What kind of colors are there here?
She noticed so flowers with familiar colors here and there. Walking between those was a lot like walking through a chilly ankle-height current moving between the small waterfalls. So she spread her arms to better feel the slight scent and heat of flowers as she walked out into the main garden.
She did not sense anyone there. Is that Sasuke-san and Saizou-san’s doing? she wondered. If so, what am I going to find here?
She walked between flower beds, fields, and the many waterfalls and she crossed a stream. She spun around a bit on the bridge to perceive her full surroundings.
…Ah.
There were fireflies. They were glowing bugs. She could not perceive the “glow” since they produced no heat, but she knew to view their locations as “beautiful”.
“Wow…”
Those “beautiful” spots flew around her amid the many reverse cascades.
Amazing, she thought. It’s a sha the others can’t see this. Maybe I should go call Urquiaga-kun. But…
“Hey! Tenzou! I did what you said and it put on a different route! And a wife!? Are you telling a Catholic like to break one of the commandnts!? What? The wife is an elder sister too! You got a problem with that!? That’s right! You just need to apologize… Since you apologized for your sin, I will let you off easy and only work with Toori to flood the divine network with spoilers for your character’s route.”
He sounds pretty excited, so I probably shouldn’t interrupt him, decided Suzu.
Then she arrived at the main garden’s central clearing. There was a large tree in the center and the “beautiful” spots flew around below it. Below the tree was sothing that rose to chest height on her.
…A stone?
She was skeptical because it had a snake coiled around it.
But she also thought A snake? because the coiled snake had horns. Or rather, it had just the one horn on one side. And so she concluded that this was neither a stone nor a snake.
As she wondered what it was, she called a na aloud.
“Masamune…-san?”
Masamune trembled when soone called her na without warning.
…Eh?
Her confusion was not just from the fact that soone had called out to her. She had been ditating in order to beco one with her surroundings and calm herself. During that training, she should have been invisible. And yet…
“How?”
She could only assu it was due to her own inexperience, but she was still puzzled.
She faced forward while sitting.
“You…?”
Suzu sensed Masamune taking more definite form in front of her.
The girl stood up and faced her.
So Suzu bowed and prepared to say “It’s nice to see you again.”
But the girl spoke first.
“It’s nice to et you. You’re…Musashi’s ambassador I assu. I’ve heard all about you. I am Date Masamune.”
…Eh?
Suzu did not understand why Masamune had said “it’s nice to et you”.
After all, she had already t her during the day. She had passed out during the commotion due to the shellfire and the god of war shaped like a blue dragon, but they had definitely greeted each other and exchanged words.
…What does this an?
Did she have so reason to pretend she had forgotten? But…
“————?”
The previous snake with a strange horn had vanished at so point. Suzu did not know what that ant, but Masamune faced her and asked a question.
“Um, so was I right? Are you Musashi’s ambassador?”
She really doesn’t rember , realized Suzu. She did not understand what this ant, but…
“Y-yes. Judge. …I am Mukai S-Suzu.”
“So you are Mukai-dono.”
Masamune let a smile onto her lips. She also gave a sigh of relief, so she too must not have known what to do about this situation.
But for so reason, Masamune did not rember Suzu. As she wondered why, Suzu decided asking was unlikely to help. Whether it was an act or not, they had just exchanged greetings.
Confident that they now “knew each other”, she asked a question while pointing to her own shoulder.
“Was there…a snake?”
“A snake?”
Masamune looked to her shoulder while standing up, but there was nothing like that there. But then she spoke up in apparent understanding.
“Oh. That must have been my divine protection. …Both Kojirou and I were born after the Dragon God dwelled within our mother. But if you could see that, can you see spirits?”
“No… It was the wind…and heat.”
Suzu shook her head, but she honestly gave voice to her thoughts.
“It surprised .”
“It surprised you, did it?” Masamune sounded amused. “Mukai-dono, how about I show you around?”
“Eh? R-really?”
“The person who should handle that is unfortunately absent at the mont. Do you want to call the half-dragon that’s with you?”
Suzu glanced back toward the corridor to their rooms. She heard Urquiaga have a fulfilling ti, so she slowly faced Masamune and shook her bangs back and forth.
“N-no. He sounds…serious.”
“I’m not sure what you an, but I guess it’ll just be you.”
With that, Masamune grabbed Suzu’s hand without warning.
That was a common action, but for Suzu…
“Nn…”
She felt it was wrong and trembled at being treated differently from normal.
And it was a tremor of rejection.
Masamune realized she had acted too hastily.
A tense strength ran through the ambassador’s hand.
…Oops.
This girl had excellent senses, but that ant being touched so suddenly only filled her with fear. So…
“Sorry.”
She quickly moved to let go, but…
“—————”
The ambassador firmly held her hand back. And with a rushed strength.
Had she felt bad for giving a reaction of rejection? She quickly shook her head.
“It’s…”
Was she starting to say “it’s okay”? But she stopped and simply shook her head while a rough breath swallowed the rest of her words.
Masamune wondered what to do with the tension that had taken over after the tremor. The ambassador would not allow her to let go, but…
…In that case…
Just as she thought that, Musashi’s ambassador raised her head. She had realized sothing and Masamune followed by looking up overhead as well.
“Ohh.”
The tree branches up above were glowing.
It was the fireflies.
The fireflies grew in the stream and flew from there and they had gathered on the tree branches.
“It looks like the tree is blossoming.”
“…The color.”
The ambassador cald her breathing and asked a question while looking up.
“What color is it?”
When Masamune looked again, she realized it was not white. Nor was it yellow. If anything…
“It’s a pale glow of light green.”
“Is that…the color of fireflies?”
When she replied with “testant”, the girl nodded.
She was no longer trembling and she felt no fear. She almost looked like a child after having a box of toys dumped out in front of them. But…
…What about ?
Masamune spoke while wondering that.
“Ambassador.”
“…Wh-what?”
“I’d like to show you around, so is that okay?”
The girl nodded. There was nothing there, but she looked up and tilted her head around as if viewing behind and between things.
“The colors…”
She made a request with a smile.
“Can you…tell the colors?”
There was a night sky there.
It was a tall sky. It was clear, the two moons were out, and the moonlight dyed the white ground a pale blue.
A floor was on a level height with that ground, but it was separated from that surrounding surface. A giant warship was contained within a land port carved out inside a giant pit in the ground.
The tal ship’s side said Yamagata Castle in white.
That warship was the Mogami clan’s flagship and academy and each of its three hulls had sunk below the surface. However, the bridges from each floor of the land port and from the surface connected to the academy building that acted as castle tower and ship’s bridge and many people and gods of war were quickly carrying supplies or equipnt across.
The equipnt to repair or replace armor panels, the ammunition and anti-warship spell charms, and the food and fuel stores were given priority, but…
“I take it you resupply and perform maintenance by moonlight rather than your own lights because Oushuu contains so many nonhumans, Yoshiaki.”
On the Yamagata Castle’s rooftop, Yoshiyasu looked down into the seeming canyon between the land port and ship. She then looked to the white land that was at nearly even level with the rooftop.
…It looks like it would be hard to send a ship out from down here, but it leaves almost no risk of being fired on from afar. And a bombing would require pinpoint accuracy.
They would have trouble with an invasion from the surface, but she doubted any land force could make it this far over that vast snowy plain.
“And…”
Yoshiyasu’s gaze moved to the northwest, where the Far East’s western ocean was.
It looked like a vast snowy plain, but a closer look showed the base of the hills had been carved into and several long lines led toward the ocean and occasionally rose up to a hundred or so ters tall. They covered an area of a few kiloters in each direction. An even closer looked showed the risen areas were spaced out a fair bit and continued to the horizon.
Yoshiyasu tilted her head toward Yoshiaki behind her.
“Um, are those comb-like outlines cities on the surface?”
“That’s right. They dug into the slopes of the hills to create multilevel cities. The cities are divided between multilevel residential areas and valley areas for the snow to accumulate. The snow keeps out the wind, the lted snow can be used to generate power, and that water can wet the fields of the residential areas. Coexisting with the snow is Mogami’s forte.”
As she answered, Yoshiaki wore a Russian-style uniform modified into a light yellow kariginu, lay on the rooftop’s tatami mats, and snacked on so dango. She would occasionally drink sake from a bottle, but…
“Yoshiaki-sama! Your drinking pace is especially high today, so I’m worried, mon!!”
A salmon Mouse was moving back and forth in midair and making a lot of noise. Musashi’s vassal was also snacking on dango by Yoshiaki’s feet, but…
“Um, about that Mouse…”
“Oh, this is Shakenobe Hidetsuna, our Treasurer and Secretary. Co on over here.”
“Yoshiaki-sama! What is it, mon!?”
When the salmon ca over, Yoshiaki grabbed it with a smile and stretched it out front to back. As a Mouse, the simplified image grew from about twenty centiters long to thrice that size.
“See, Vassal-dono, Satomi? …This is Shakenobe.”[1]
“Ahhhn, Yoshiaki-sama! That kind of forceful introduction leaves at an utter loss for words, mon!”
“Ho ho ho. Shakenobe, you are such a strange creature to take such joy from being bullied.”
Yoshiyasu nearly said “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”, but she held her tongue and watched Yoshiaki release Shakenobe and gently get up.
“Now… You more or less understand our general situation, don’t you?”
“If you’re suggesting we have a eting, I believe that is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.”
“After Musashi’s special student general assembly, you an? Well, that’s fine, but don’t you think there are so things it would be best to know about each other before that?”
Yoshiyasu updated her judgnt of this woman. She had supposedly called the two of them here so their rooms could be prepared and to keep them out of the way of the work below, but…
…She really was focused more on the three nations eting tomorrow.
Yoshiaki had shown no sign of arranging any resupplying down below since coming to the rooftop. Either it had all been finished beforehand or each division was trained well enough to make the best decisions on their own.
That suggested a certain aning to the dango and sake she held.
…Did she really just want to snack and drink!?
The vassal had been right to go with the flow and eat what was provided. Yoshiyasu had thought there was more to this and decided to be more cautious.
At the mont, the vassal took a teacup from the sign fra tray on Shakenobe’s head.
“This is Kyou tea we received via Sviet Rus, mon!”
“Oh, so you’re still trading even as you fight?”
“Did I just leak so classified information, mon!? But I won’t lose, mon! The power of salmon is to give you the energy you need in the morning, mon! Natto!? I’ll hear nothing of it, mon! If you want eggs, eat salmon roe, mon!”
“Oh, I get it now. Do you say ‘mon’ cause you’re a salmon? But isn’t that English?”
“But in Russian, it’s semga and saying ‘mga’ isn’t cute, mon!”
“I didn’t want to say anything, but is this a wild Mouse by any chance?”
“That’s right, mon! I’m wild, mon! I was born in IZUMO and, to make more realistic, I was sent on a Co Back Salmon mission, but I got fed up with the world while swimming in the ocean and returned to nature, mon!”
“Why did you get fed up with the world?”
“U-um… How should I put it? The adults? Um, all the discipline from the adults, I guess…”
“Everyone has tis when they want to act tough for no real reason,” added Yoshiaki.
“Ahhhh, Yoshiaki-sama! Don’t put it so bluntly, mon! A aninglessly rebellious heart is the symbol of youth!”
: “Yeah, sotis your youth displays a aninglessly rebellious heart in the mornings. Right, Tenzou? And it’s hard to restrain it. Right, Tenzou? Don’t you think, Tenzou?”
10ZO: “Wh-why did you send that my way three tis!? And I have Mary-dono with , so it isn’t aningless!”
Asama: “Um, you an…you were facing the wall and feeling yourself for a reason…?”
Mal-Ga: “You’re the worst…”
10ZO: “Huh, huh? Wh-what is this about feeling myself? This took a weird turn.”
Scarred: “Um, Master Tenzou? The next ti you feel that way in the morning, I’m willing to help.”
Almost Everyone: “Helping him feel himself…”
10ZO: “Don’t add that ‘…’! Just don’t! It gives a bad feeling about all this!”
They like to listen in until they can use sothing they heard, don’t they? thought Yoshiyasu as she looked to Yoshiaki once more.
“There’s sothing I would like to ask about. It’s about Komahi.”
Yoshiaki reacted to that na.
A small smile remained on her lips, but she closed her eyes.
“I had a feeling you would…”
“Judge… I am not entirely ignorant of Komahi and Kojirou. They are in the sa year as , so we t during the Oushuu Festival and at other events.”
That was true.
Satomi ruled Bousou and was thus on the far east of Kantou, but that ant they held the naval route needed for Oushuu’s eastern forces to travel south from Kantou. And for western Oushuu, Satomi was in the perfect position to hold the eastern Oushuu nations in check.
Satomi had had interactions with Date and Mogami and had worked to hold them in check. But…
“Yoshiaki, I know how much you pampered Komahi. …So please tell . I understand that Komahi had to beco Hashiba Hidetsugu’s concubine to follow the Testant descriptions for the history recreation,” said Yoshiyasu. “But why is she a ghost now? And why has Kojirou beco Hashiba Hidetsugu?”
That question received a question in response. It ca from the vassal who was tilting her head.
“By Kojirou…do you an that Kojirou? The Date one?”
“Yes, she ans Date Kojirou.” Yoshiaki laughed quietly. “The brother of Date Masamune is now Hashiba Hidetsugu.”
What does that an? wondered Masazumi as she tilted her head inside the tent prepared for her in the courtyard.
Tsukinowa mistook it for rubbing her cheek against it, so the Mouse pressed against her face. Masazumi responded in kind, and…
“Neshinbara, give a history of Date Kojirou and-…”
She belatedly realized Neshinbara was not here. Earlier, Heidi had sent word that Shakespeare had begun working on removing the wall printing, but…
“It’s a pain having to look everything up myself.”
“Maa?”
I can think of it as teaching Tsukinowa, she decided with an optimistic sigh.
…I need to look up a history of Date Kojirou and his current treatnt.
He was the brother of the Date clan’s leader. So why was he now Hashiba Hidetsugu, nephew of Hashiba? And why was he a ghost?
This had to be top secret. Probably on a level that prevented her father and the others from revealing it even if they knew on a personal level. And now it had suddenly co to the surface.
This is bait, realized Masazumi while smiling bitterly at Mogami Yoshiaki’s strategy here.
“Let’s hurry up and look this up, Tsukinowa. Rember that it’s about doing everything in the best way you can, not in the ‘proper’ order.”
And…
Vice President: “Satomi President, can you get any information out of Mogami Yoshiaki?”
Righteousness: “There’s one keyword that cos to mind. I’ll try asking about that.”
Masazumi prepared to say “please do”, but…
Righteousness: “You’ve already accomplished one thing, so I’ll do the sa.”
Masazumi froze in place when she heard that.
…I see.
She had thought her earlier discussion with Yasuhira had mostly been important to Musashi, but…
“Have I given you the motivation you need, Satomi President?”
She spoke that aloud rather than via the divine transmission, so she received no reply. But everyone around her exchanged a glance and either nodded or smiled. So Masazumi smiled a little herself and said sothing other than “please do”.
Vice President: “It’s up to you then.”
When she saw the Musashi Vice President’s reply, Yoshiyasu thought, Don’t leave these things to so casually.
But at the sa ti, she asked Yoshiaki a question.
“Can I ask you sothing? Why has the brother of Date’s leader beco Hashiba Hidetsugu? And why is he a ghost? Also…”
“No one likes a child who asks too many questions.”
“And everyone hates an adult that refuses to listen.”
With that, Yoshiyasu asked a new question. It gathered together all the nas that had co up recently.
“There’s a word I’ve heard several tis during today’s fighting.”
It was most likely connected to all of them. The one word tied them all together.
“What is the ‘promise’? What exactly is the ‘promise’ that includes Komahi, Kojirou, and most likely Masamune and Honjou Shigenaga as well?”
Notes
1. ↑ Shakenobe can be literally interpreted as Salmon Stretch.
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