by Kamiya Yuu
“The right…but that’s based on ‘timing and location’, right…?”
Vermouth seemed to be enlightened by those words, and he said, looking impressed,
“…You’re still young, but you do know quite a lot, brat. Once I get saved, let’s go get a drink. it’s a deal.”
Marie was huffing after running this much, and upon hearing this deal, she gave a cold snort.
The Mansei Bridge—that was what they always called this place for a long time.
Marie lifted her sights slightly, and could see a massive contour dangling in the dawning sky. With the massive pillar reaching from earth to sky as the center there were many massive round plates overlapped on each other, each spanning a few kilometers in diameter.
These are the city grids that the Multiple Grid Tokyo.
At this point, they were located at this Grid Akihabara, the lowers level of Tokyo.
The bridge connecting this place to the Grid above was the destination Marie and the others were headed for.
(Now then—)
Marie turned her head around.
She stared at the ostentatious massive shadow blotting the morning sun—the gigantic spider that was stamping on the buildings and being blasse towards the city. Then, she said,
“Tell me right now. That weapon was created by combining the results from electromagnetic studies…right?”
“Why ask the obvious?”
Marie stopped.
The head in the right arm fell to the ground, and got stomped on by her.
“Don’t get cocky. Tell me ‘yes’ or ‘no; anything else, and I’ll kill you.”
“Yes.”
“Very good. Next question. What’s it trying to do next?”
“No.”
Marie immediately grabbed Vermouth’s head.
And then, she raised it without hesitation, throwing it over her head down at the Kanda river flowing right below her eyes.
Right when Vermouth was really going to get thrown down, Naoto stopped her,
“Calm down, marie. Don’t kill anyone in front of AnchoR.”
“Hey brat, I’m glad that you’re helping me, but that’s a weird reason, okay?”
Marie then grumbled, looking annoyed,
“I’m really an idiot actually think of relying on this guy—well, let’s ask just in case. AnchoR can at least take on take thing, right?”
If it was that overwhelming fighting ability that could match RyuZU’s ‘Mute Scream’—while Marie thought of this, AnchoR dejectedly shook her head.
“…Sorry…mama…”
“AnchoR needs to charge up right now. Don’t force her to deal with such a thing.”
Naoto buttered in to protect the girl.
After hearing that, Marie understood.
How the Perpetual Gear—which generated an infinite amount of heat such that ‘it remained in perpetual motion’, worked.
But one could tell that even if the power was infinite, there was a limit to the output.
Once the power usage was more than the regeneration, the backup power would start to be used.
The power drain was at its minimum, in the first gear. Once the spring started its initial motion, it could continue to run forever.
That why AnchoR was able to break free.
But after the battle with RyuZU, the severe damages and repairs, the remaining power AnchoR had stored in her ‘Perpetual Gear’ was almost completely gone.
If the gear was kicked on, the power drain would be beyond the output, and she would run out of power in a few minutes.
—In other words, they could not settle this with AnchoR’s power.
Marie shook her head, groaning,
“Well, at the very least, if we know of that guy’s intentions…”
“How many times must I say it now, Missy? You still have to ask when it’s this obvious now?”
“Shut up, or I’ll really throw you into the river.”
“—Get real, you self-proclaimed genius. The pieces are all together. I’m disappointed if you still don’t understand now, okay?”
“—”
After hearing those words, Marie shook her head, wanting to sort out the situation.
She admitted that she was really confused.
The cause of it all was the microwave message sent by this head.
They were tracking a signal down to the underground of Grid Mie, and found a massive weapon. It was a weapon that could destroy the weapon, developed by the ‘military’ technicians affiliated to Grid Shiga that were researching on the illegal electromagnetic technology.
Then, the government wanted to restore its credibility after the failed purge of Kyoto, starting a large scale skirmish with Mie—the old Shiga ‘military’.
Marie’s group took the initiative to stop the conflict, getting all the civilians to evacuate through a terrorist announcement, and lured in the Tokyo ‘military’ Capital Defense Forces to the underground to take on the massive weapon.
However, all that they did was futile. They failed.
That one shock punctured through the city, and the continuous electromagnetic pulse caused Akihabara to be further destabilized. Furthermore, Halter barely managed to escape with his life, RyuZu was so damaged her functions stopped, and AnchoR was lacking in power. Marie was left completely powerful in the magnetized streets.
All their plans were crushed, and their fighting strength completely nullified.
—Till this point, she had yet to recover from that shock.
(The pieces are here…? What does that mean—no…my mind’s just going blank without thinking of anything.)
Marie gritted her teeth in frustration.
But at that moment.
Naoto suddenly lifted his head.
That was the terrifying face she just saw—but that face clearly showed that he ‘saw through everything’.
He gave a piercing glare at the gigantic spider that was blocking out the sun, and said,
“…’nothing’…is that what that shit is doing?”
Upon hearing those words, Marie looked over, dumbfounded.
Immediately, Vermouth’s laugh echoed through this doomsday Akihabara, and AnchoR’s shoulders jolted.
“Ha—hahahaha! You really are good there, brat! Hey Missy, you really picked up someone interesting!”
“What do you…mean?”
—Again.
It seemed there was again something she did not know, a discussion she could not understand.
This anxious frustration caused Marie to frown in an annoyed manner.
Vermouth then said heartily,
“In any case…that thing over there is just appearing there. This itself—is already the worst possible scenario for the ‘government’. It’s like the Queen suddenly appearing on the chessboard in front of the king. It’s just a con—but the winner’s decided.”
—She did not understand.
What exactly did this guy and Naoto see and felt to get that conclusion—
“—Missy.”
Vermouth tried to hold in his laughter as he said,
“Sorry for saying this, but you’re just a kid who has yet to know the world. How innocent of you.”
“Wha—”
“As for that brat—well, you’re cute, and you have such cruel thoughts there. You really have the potential to be a real shitty bastard there, you know?”
“I’m already used to being called a pervert, but I’m against being called a shitty bastard, okay~?”
Naoto pouted unhappily.
—In summary, Vermouth concluded.
“It’s like what that brat said. They’re just waiting for the ‘government to self-destruct’—checkmate.”
Chapter 1 – 07:20 – Explorer
Currently, on this ‘Clockwork Planet’, humans are living on gigantic gears.
And amongst them, the major cities during the old era–before the Earth was mechanized and fitted with gears, like the capital of develop
ed nations, or economic hubs, were uniquely designed to be distinctly different from ordinary cities.
The Multi Grid Tokyo was one of them.
It is the core of Japan, formed by multiple city grids overlapped over each other. Hailed as the largest population in the country, the governance, authority, communications, education, industries and cultures–all the them were considered the apex in the country, and could be said to be a complex city, a compressed essence of Japan itself.
And so, amongst them, the ‘governance’ core itself was at Grid Kasumigaseki.
It was the city of governance with many ministry buildings located there, spearheaded by the National Diet Building.
This was typically a peaceful city, where all the public sector workers would be quietly doing their work.
But on this day, the city appeared to be in a state of war from the middle of the night, until the morning.
The Defense Bureau and National Police Agency staff were scurrying around, looking utterly determined, and the Resonance Communications was filled with groans and curses from the intelligence and inspection officers associated to each bureau.
At this moment, in a certain Senate room located at Kasumigaseki in the ruling party’s headquarters, the counter-terrorist council were having a meeting.
“–So? What happened?”
The current Prime Minister slowly inquired.
He ignored the uproar that occurred since the middle of the night, and dawdled his way in only when it was morning; at this moment, he leisurely arrived at the head seat, and gave a skeptical face.
“I heard that there was a terrorist incident in the middle of the night. Is it suppressed now?”
“–Mr Prime Minister, I do say that the situation is more dire than that.”
Upon hearing the response of the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the Prime Minister gave a perturbed frown.
“Is there an instance of civilians being hurt? You really are worrying me here. The Cabinet was just established, and if the approval ratings are to all again…”
“That is not all that is. Right now, Grid Akihabara is in a state of complete cessation.”
The Prime Minister looked stupefied, asking,
“What?”
“And right now, a certain massive weapon of an unknown military force is currently occupying Akihabara.”
The Prime Minister’s mouth was wide open as he muttered,
“An unknown, massive weapon…?”
“It can be said to be a gigantic–Super Dreadnought level of a land mobile armor. Before dawn, it took on the 7th Aerial Squad in Grid Yokosuka, and annihilated all of them…”
Having heard of this report for the first time, the Prime Minister looked somewhat anxious as he gave a perturbed face.
“Wait, you are really worrying me here. Those fighter jets are rather expensive, aren’t they? Didn’t we just cut the defense budget last year too? Now the media’s going to attack us for it.”
“As I said, there is something more dire than this, Mr Prime Minister.”
“Mr Prime Minister, please listen to his explanation.”
The ruling party’s Chief Secretary interrupted from the side, and pointed at a man.
The young man was probably in his early 30s. He was tall and frail, looking a little unreliable. His hair was casually tied up, and he was dressed in a casual jacket and denim pants. Such a racy flair was a distinct sight from the officials dressed in suit.
“…And you are?”
The Prime Minister asked, looking suspicious. The man showed a smile devoid of tension as he answered,
“It is our first meeting. My name is Yuu Karasawa, a civilian Meister–I was deployed here as a consultant for the Technology Bureau.”
“A Meister…?”
The Prime Minister looked skeptical, and Karasawa showed the ‘Chrono Compass’–the proof of a Meister.
Once the basic identity check was done, he continued on, smiling,
“To be honest, the current situation is in the worst predicament. Grid Akihabara is currently occupied by the armed forces–and if this massive weapon is to invade the other Grids, the damage will continue to spread.”
“Then what are you hesitating for? Shouldn’t you be off to suppress those terrorists? This is why the ‘military’ exists, right?”
Karasawa continued to smile even as the Prime Minister looked displeased, and calmly answered.
“It is not that simple. When the terrorist activity occurred in the middle of the night, the capital defense forces discovered a massive weapon, and entered the underground to take it head on, but–they were all annihilated.”
“Huh”
“And the 7th Aerial Squad that was shot down had the latest CzFG-11 planes. Coupled with the fact that the pilots were highly proficient, and they are the strongest aerial forces the ‘military’ had.”
And also,
“More importantly, once it was observed that they were wiped out, there was an attempt to attack the weapon directly using the Capital Defense Cannon…the cannon did hit the target, but it did not bring about much effective damage on the target’s armor.”
The Prime Minister was dumbfounded, and turned to look at the Defense Minister,
“…What have you been spending the yearly Defense budget on? You can’t suppress a mere terrorist cell?”
The Defense Minister’s face was red, and he hushed his voice, answering,
“If I may say, the armed forces we have are just ordinary weaponry meant for city combat. We did not have the massive firepower needed to tackle such a scenario.”
“Defending the city is the job of your people, right? You made the suppression of a terrorist cell so gaudy, it is a problem here.”
“…Our responsibility here is to defend against the invasion from foreign militaries. It is completely unexpected that a massive weapon of destruction would appear in our own soil.”
“I don’t know anything about military affairs.”
The Prime Minister, legally the commander-in-chief, continued on,
“Can’t you hurry and destroy it with some guided missiles or anything?”
Karasawa amicably interrupted,
“–The enemy does have the anti-air firepower to take out the latest weaponry, you know? Also, it has armor strong enough to withstand a direct hit from the Capital Defense Cannon. Do you intend to fire LAMS missiles onto your own country?”
“…LAMS?”
“A mechanized bomb designated to eliminate any traces…in old terms, it would be a nuclear bomb.”
“Ah, ahh…if that is the case, you could have said so right from the beginning. The specialists love their acronyms–no, just no. The people will revolt. What does the ‘military’ intend to do?”
The prime minister immediately shook his head, and Karasawa informed him, his voice clearly forceful at this point,.
“In conclusion, the current situation is that it is impossible to take down that military force through brute force alone.”
“I will be troubled if you said that. That is merely the incompetence of the ‘military’, no? This responsibility–”
“It doesn’t matter who should take responsibility here.”
The Chief Cabinet Minister coldly interrupted.
He was said to be a political with a steel-like endurance. At this moment, even he could not hide his face and voice as a grim look began to appear on his face.
“You got it? Right now, Grid Akihabara is in functional breakdown because of the terrorist weapon. In fact, it is no different from being destroyed. If we leave it alone, it will only be a matter of time before the other Grids are wrecked. We have no choice but to counter it quickly.”
“I did say that it is the ‘military’–”
“The current situation is at a point where the ‘military’ fighting strength can’t settle this. This is why we have to think of countermeasures, and your decision is imperious, Mr Prime Minister.”
“Mine?”
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br /> “We have to hurry and purge Grid Akihabara. I wish to have your permit.”
The Chief Cabinet Secretary’s words caused the Prime Minister to be dumbfounded.
“What are you saying now? How can I possibly do such a thing?”
“There is no other way.”
At this point, Karasawa lost his smile for the first time. He raised his hand and stood up, interrupting them,
“Ah, my apologies. As the consultant, purging Grid Akihabara is not something I really would like to recommend…”
The Chief Cabinet Secretary turned his head around, glaring sharply at Karasawa.
“–For what reasons?”
“Akihabara is not just a single city. Structure-wise, it is an important part to the functioning of the Multi Grid Tokyo. To purge it will certainly affect the other Grids.”
“But that is what purging is all about?”
The Chief Cabinet Secretary brusquely noted.
“And also, Akihabara is no different from being wrecked now because of that weapon. based on their saying, it would have affected the other Grids now, I suppose?”
“Of course that is the case. Akihabara’s functional failure at this point is causing a burden on the other Grids now.”
“How long can we keep this up?”
“It is fine if it is today or tomorrow, but certainly not half a year.”
“How much can you repair Akihabara in this half a year?”
“We have to look at the extent of the damage. It might be hard to tell at this point, but with the full assistance of the ‘Guild’, I would say that it is not impossible to–”
“There is nothing to talk about here.”
The Chief Cabinet Secretary cut off Karasawa’s words.
“I know you want to boast about your old nest’s abilities, but I cannot allow you putting an uncertain observation as a wish and ignoring such a reality facing you–Prime Minister!”
The Secretary ignored Karasawa’s objection as he forced the Prime Minister’s hands.
That ferocious sight of his caused the Prime Minister to be greatly intimidated. The latter’s forehead was oozing sweat, but he staggered and voiced his opposition.