Clockwork Planet - Volume 02

by Kamiya Yuu

  After hearing Naoto boast his desires, Marie shook her head.

  And Halter, standing beside her, slouched his back slightly, saying,

  “…I really wouldn’t recommend you guys to take action without being certain of the intel.”

  Marie nods in response to that advice, but shrugged her shoulders.

  “…Either way, things aren’t going to change. The guy who knows about us did send a transmission that logically couldn’t be tracked down from such a mysterious place.”

  “That’s the case, but,”

  “Maybe it’s not about the Initial-Y series, but the chances of this being a trap or a warning aren’t very high either. In that case, maybe this is ‘provided intel’ from a certain person who’s cornered.”

  “…You’re being surprisingly calm, you know?”

  After hearing Halter ask this, Marie raised an eye flexibly, saying,

  “Do you think this Princess really will go crazy just because of that little taunt?”

  “I do think that’s the case. Am I wrong?”

  “Of course—naturally, I’m going to slaughter that sender later.”

  Halter went silent as he rolled his eyes at Marie.

  The latter snorted as she lifted her chin, saying,

  “I’m saying this not because I’m overwhelmed by emotions. In fact, with your experience, my expertise, Naoto’s senses and RyuZU’s fighting strength, it’s easy for this group here to break into the factory complex, right? If we can’t get anything after probing a little, we’ll just hurry up and retreat.”

  …Hm. Halter nodded, his arms folded as he touched his chin.

  Marie was certainly right about this. They were not intruding upon a military base, and if they were to fully utilize the skills of all the present members, breaking into the factory should be a cinch.

  If they were able to get intel, they would definitely be able to find out their next course of action, assuming that they would not lose anything even if they do miss.

  And it was true that they could not leave this anomaly alone…

  “…”

  However, Halter wondered.

  He could not refute the logic, but neither could he agree with it.

  It was not because the idea was ridiculous; surely that was not the problem. No matter what Halter himself felt, he could be certain it was correct as long as Marie felt that there was a possibility.

  But even so, the back of his neck was stinging painfully despite him being unable to describe it in detail.

  —He had a bad feeling about this.

  It was not the instinct Naoto had displayed, and neither was it the logical deduction Marie had used.

  To put it somehow, it was the countless experience he had accumulated. The faint scene of danger held only by those ordinary people who passed through the hail of bullets, went through hellish situations of life-endangering moments, those cowards.

  To put it another way, that was simply it.

  In fact, Marie’s assessment of their battle abilities was correct.

  She was an ex-Meister, a genius. Leaving aside her wrestling skills, she could easily hold her own against an ordinary automata with its Coil Spear unleashed. Halter himself was a full-body cyborg who had the Breguets’ latest cutting-edge technology incorporated in him. Most problems could be solved by the two of them alone, and also—

  There was Naoto, whose insight was able to even decipher the latest Vacheron stealth weapon, the Goliath

  And then there was RyuZU, the Initial-Y series model who had such overwhelming functions; any machinery pitted against her would be powerless.

  As Marie had said, there should be no problems.

  …But no matter how many times he affirmed this, Halter was unable to rid himself of his anxiety.

  ● ● ●

  It was a massive factory located near the outskirts of the Heavy Industrial Complex.

  In the midst of that Industrial Complex that had practically ceased to run, the factory alone continued to operate. Marie would not tell from the outside what sort of a factory that was.

  The quartet, who arrived at this place due to Naoto’s instincts, observed from the metal tower that was slightly further away.

  Patrolling around the factory were guards dressed in the ‘Military’ uniforms.

  Marie lowered her posture as she peeked in on the situation, saying,

  “Looks like…it isn’t completely empty here.”

  “They can’t just leave all the guard work to automatas anyway.”

  Halter answered as he turned to look behind.

  Right in front of his eyes was Naoto, who had his eyes closed as he lowered his head. He was not wearing the trademark headphones this time.

  He had the abnormal hearing sense to eavesdrop on conversations despite the 100% noise cancelling functions, and this time, he had complete grasp of the entire facility down below.

  His eyes still closed he said,

  “…The facility looks rather large here. It’s very normal on the surface, but the walls inside are extremely thick, and the work area’s wide. From the underground, it looks like 4 areas can be assessed. At the bottom of it all is an extremely, unnaturally large space, and…what’s this? It’s not running properly, but there’s ‘something’.”

  Marie frowned, and turned her head back to Naoto.

  “What something?”

  “It’s not activated right now, so I’m not too sure about it…but it’s really big. It’s about the city of an entire city—a building?”

  “…I see. That’s suspicious. Any entrance you found?”

  “Can I tell you the construction, location of the surveillance and where the guards are?”

  “That’s good enough. Please.”

  Marie nodded, and opened a blank map in her mind.

  After hearing Naoto’s report, she drew an intrusion route on the blank sheet in her mind.

  After hearing the necessary information needed for infiltration, Marie slowly got up. Halter, standing beside her, raised her petite frame single-handedly, but the former did not mind as she stared at the surface of the watch wrapped around her arm—and took a breath.

  “Now’s the time.”

  Halter jumped.

  The displacement from this roof to the targeted factory was approximately 100m.

  And Halter covered that distance in a single leap.

  He let out a soft little thud as he landed on the concrete roof.

  And a beat later, RyuZU, carrying Naoto, silently gave chase.

  &nsbp;&nsbp;

  They were inside the factory of concrete and reinforcement bars.

  The passageway was exceptionally wide, easy for equipment to be moved. The light gears set at fixed intervals apart caused the passageway to be lit completely white.

  Walking along this passageway was a young man dressed in white robes, probably a researcher. He was accompanied by a little 4-legged automata.

  As he walked on, the man read the stack of papers in his hand, probably some documents, before stopping in his tracks. The automata beside him too let out a creaking as it stopped.

  He turned around.

  “…?”

  Nothing.

  The man tilted his head, and let out a sigh. Perhaps he was thinking too much when he senses a stare, maybe.

  Letting out a wry smile, he turned his stare back.

  “—Bonsoir.”

  Standing in front of him was a blond pretty girl smiling at him, speaking fluent French.

  The man was left flabbergasted, and the simple-minded automata, reacting to such a situation, drew out the gun it had within as it let out a monotonous warning,

  “Intruder spotted—”

  The next moment, the man was knocked out from a hit at the back of his neck, and the automata at his feet was silently severed into scraps at the same time.

  “Bonne Nuit.”

  Marie watched the man and machine slump onto the floor as she muttered.

/>   And Halter, who knocked the man out from behind, scratched his head, saying,

  “—This intrusion is getting too easy, hey.”

  10 minutes, or just 10 minutes, had passed from the moment they began their intrusion as they easily got to the elevator leading to the bottom most level of the factory.

  It was not that the security was too lax here. For a normal factory, it could be said to be too much, but Marie merely shrugged with a complacent look.

  “Naoto’s able to identify where the guards and surveillance equipment are, and even identify the entire construct of the building. Security practically doesn’t exist here…your ears are really convenient here. If such an ability’s revealed to the world, I guess you’ll be vivisected for research, you know?”

  Or maybe I should do this. With such an added implication, she turned to Naoto, who’s carried around by RyuZU, who carried him on the back.

  Naoto didn’t respond. His physical abilities were subpar, and after considering the fatigue of moving around and sudden dangers, RyuZU was tasked to carry him around and let him focus on his hearing. However…

  “…”

  Marie noticed the perverted looking eyes he had as he looked around RyuZU’s shoulders, and what he was exactly focusing on was plain for all to see.

  Trying her best to eke out a smile, Marie called out to him,

  “Naotoooo—!?”

  “—Heh? Oh, no, I’m not thinking that I won’t get scolded if I’m to touch those titties at this moment, really, I swear!”

  Naoto tried to defend himself with blatant lies, and RyuZU merely said with a nonchalant look,

  “—Master Naoto, if you really wish to vent your primal lust, please rub them as you wish, for I do not have the right to say no.”

  “Eh? Really? But for some reason, this complicated heart of a man just wilted after hearing you say that—”

  “Whatever, can we just leave that for later!?”

  Marie closed her frozen eyes slightly as she hissed, and head towards the double doors down the passageway in front of them.

  The doors were shut, and the wall beside it had panel buttons installed in it.

  This was a unique elevator that required the correct password to use.

  “Can you crack it?”

  “—It’s the same as the ones in the upper levels. Just remove the 36th hook from the right on the 4th level to open it.”

  “Understood.”

  With this brief reply, Marie moved her hands.

  The panel beside the door slid open, and the screw floated as if it was zero gravity. Within the wall were many gear locks.

  Even a skilled clockwork technician would require several hours to cautiously open this lock, yet Marie fumbled around it it, and pulled out the 36th hook from the right of the 4th row, a spare part as small as a a little finger nail, as if it was a magic trick, before shutting it back like time had reversed.

  The doors let out a whoosh as it readily opened.

  “Right, let’s go. Down below, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  After hearing Naoto nod without hesitation, Marie hopped into the elevator enthusiastically.

  And Halter, watching her from behind, could not help but let out a sigh.

  &nsbp;&nsbp;

  —The detector that was able to decipher facility securities better than any hi-specification sonars, Naoto.

  —The technician that was able to use that information and immobilize any systems at a godlike speed, Marie.

  —The one able to wreck anything, even a heavy-armored automata without any retaliation allowed, RyuZU.

  With these people present, any number of guards or security would be meaningless. One would even suspect if they could easily break in like this even if it was the headquarters of the 5 Enterprises.

  No matter how potent the security system in, none of them would last against Naoto and Marie.

  And for those physical obstacles that could not be unlocked by codes, RyuZU’s scythe would rip them apart in less than a second.

  Whether it was the latest traps or surveillance installations, all would be meaningless.

  They would immediately discover, dissect and destroy them. They would either discover the patrol guards, researchers, even automatas beforehand, or neutralize them.

  They were intruding into a facilities with such a tight security network, yet this trio had the attitude of one being here for a social studies trip or something.

  …If this was not called foul play, what else could?

  If I were to see this during his days in the army, I would have resigned without hesitation. Halter thought.

  …However, it had yet to vanish.

  The stinging pain of uneasiness lingering around his neck got stronger by the moment.

  While underground, on the elevator leading to the deepest part, Marie stared at Halter, and said,

  “What’s the matter, Halter? Looks like you’re bothered.”

  “…No, it’s nothing.”

  He shook his head in response to Marie’s words, but frowned.

  The infiltration was proceeding well, too well, to a point where one could not help but let his guard down.

  But what exactly was this mysterious feeling this body of his felt—no.

  Halter quietly let out a sigh.

  He knew this feeling very well. He had such a feeling before.

  This, yes.

  The moment when his allied forces were well armed, and the enemy resistance was few, the feeling a complacency as they moved forward.

  —During such moments, they would encounter things beyond their expectations. For example, that might be the moment…when his team had leaped into the enemy’s kill zones.

  It was the feeling that some extraordinary situation would be awaiting them, or to be precise, firm belief.

  &nsbp;&nsbp;

  “Ah, wait…I hear something.”

  Naoto suddenly spoke up as he placed his hand at his ear.

  Marie asked,

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a soft voice, and I can’t really hear it clearly, but it sounds like the total number of ‘parts that don’t exist’, actually no, it’s far more than that…”

  “From where?”

  “From about, 74,850m below us.”

  “About 75km below…? That’s impossible.”

  Marie immediately denied this, causing Naoto to curl his lips in a pout,

  “Why?”

  “Because there’s nothing there. It’s further than the bottom of the Core Tower. When the Clockwork Planet was constructed, those massive number of gears were made out of the cold crust and mantle of this planet. That’s why the planet is hollow, and if there’s something right below, it’s at most the completely frozen planet core—”

  Till this point, Marie seemingly thought of something, and muttered,

  “Or it might be the other constructed space below the city later on. That’s it…”

  &nsbp;&nsbp;

  After an hour and a half, the elevator reached the deepest part of the factory.

  The doors opened, and they exitd. The wall beside had the frame ’25th level’ hanging at the wall by the side. As far as Marie knew, this was the lowest level of this Grid Mie.

  Once they exited the elevator, they hopped into the floor, and it was a wide, spacious place, forming a large vault. The light gears installed on the walls glowed, turning the surroundings as bright as day.

  Naoto slowly moved forward, walked towards the middle of this wide space, and turned his head around, kicking the floor slightly.

  “It’s below here. There’s still a hole here…’something’.”

  Marie looked at the floor without uttering a word. The floor was covered with metal panels, and there were protective layers, shells, and then there was a basement far below it, in other words, outside the city.

  Naoto said that there was something down there.

  “…Let’s confirm it. There’s still a floor
below it, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. I don’t know where the entrance is however.”

  After seeing Naoto nod, Marie narrowed her eyes.

  “I guess that floor needs to be accessed from the Core Tower. This is just the bottom of the city, and there’s no entrance here in the first place.”

  “Then, what do we do?”

  “Just cut the floor up and go down.”

  Marie simply said this nonchalantly.

  “A Coil Spear should be able to cut through this method. Move back.”

  “No, wait, the space below…it’s tall—like 327.3m tall, you know?”

  “…Isn’t that space too big? Well, assuming that Naoto’s carried by RyuZU…I guess Halter’s legs won’t be able to handle this. We’ll just use some anchor wire.”

  “…Understood.”

  Halter answered briefly, but he narrowed his eyes.

  His expression was tense, ostensibly ready to get into action as he remained wary.

  “Don’t let your guard down, Milady. I’ve been sensing something bad for quite a while.”

  “I know. All these aren’t normally no matter how we think about it.”

  Marie nodded, and swung the Coil Spear.

  &nsbp;&nsbp;

  The four of them leapt into the hole that was cut out.

  They entered free-fall from more than 300m in height, but RyuZU showed no worse as she carried Naoto while elegantly adjusting herself in mid-air.

  A few seconds later, Halter, hanging from a wire, descended with Marie.

  Marie got out from Halter’s clutches, and blinked a few times.

  “…It’s dark.”

  It was pitch darkness, nary a single light. She could not see her own limbs very well, let alone the face of Halter standing beside her. She looked up at the ceiling they were at, and saw that in the midst of the darkness, there was a glowing hole akin to a full moon.

  Naoto sounded a little terrified as he said,

  “—Hear me out, Marie, this thing is…”

  “Wait, I’m not a pervert like you who knows everything just from a sound. Let me light it up a little before we continue.”

  Once Marie said this she transformed the Coil Spear with a single swing.

  She pointed the gun upwards, and fired a flashbang.

  Because of the flashbang, the wide space was immediately shrouded in day-like light, due to the flash gears spinning rapidly.