by Yuu Kamiya
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!”