Clockwork Planet - Volume 03

by Kamiya Yuu

  However, she accepted those words wholeheartedly. She should have given up on thinking, but was driven on by something.

  –That was, who exactly is the one wrong in the first place?

  RyuZU bowed with a nonchalant look.

  “Do give your best and ponder with the insufficient brain juices of yours, Master Marie. Now then, I shall be on my way–if you excuse me.”

  RyuZU then turned elegantly, jumping off, leaping down the hole.

  While all those present were unable to move, unable to say a word, Naoto alone silently stood up, declaring,

  “Let’s get going, Marie.”

  –What?

  Marie continued with the thought even she could not grasp, blankly muttering,

  “…But what do we do?”

  “What else? Think of something.”

  “So I say, what are we going to do!?”

  Marie remained seated, not moving at all as she hollered at Naoto.

  “Didn’t you say it? You can’t hear the sounds of gears that vanished, that you can’t do anything! You say you’ll think of something–but that convenient ‘magic’ doesn’t exist now!?”

  “So what!?”

  Naoto’s growl echoed throughout the level.

  “So are we going to give up!? Are you just going to wait for your death like this!? Alright, you want me to admit it!? I’ll admit it! I’ve no idea as to what to do at all!”

  Marie was grabbed by Naoto on the collar, and felt difficulty breathing.

  The furious grey eyes were glaring back,

  “But, hey! If you don’t know unless I tell you, I’ll make you remember!”

  “…What?”

  “What kind of woman you around!”

  Upon hearing that yell, Marie’s shoulders shook instinctively.

  Naoto exerted strength on the hand grabbing the shirt, his face contorted due to agitated emotions as he rattled,

  “You’re–really arrogant, despicably shitty, always thinking that you’re high up, yet always talking about your ideals, crying whenever you fail, your heart as soft as tofu, always thinking about difficult things, ruining yourself and dragging others down, the worst kind of a damn landmine girl…!”

  –Marie inadvertently regained her usual tone as she muttered,

  “You want a fight?”

  “But!!”

  He paused.

  “Nothing is impossible–you’re the kind of woman who always thinks that, right?”

  Marie widened her eyes.

  For an instant, she did not understand the meaning of those words.

  But before she could answer, Naoto shook his head impatiently, hollering,

  “Argh damn it! Why do I have to say these words now!? Look, Marie, I’m really unhappy about it, but you’re a genius, right? I think I can do something so precise nobody else can do, but fulfilling all that is all about your talent, right?”

  “–”

  “Whether it was in Kyoto or in Akihabara, it’s the same, right? Without your help, I wouldn’t be able to repair AnchoR and RyuZU in time, and uncle Halter wouldn’t be here! If I have to say it, we wouldn’t be able to leave Akihabara, right!?”

  “–”

  Naoto continued with his spiel of ranting, and in response, Marie stopped thinking.

  She blinked. Naoto continued to yell wildly..

  “–Tell me, Marie! With that great brain, skills, talent of yours–why did you give up so easily, saying that you can’t do it!?”

  Inexplicable to her was what she felt from those words–envy and jealousy.

  “If you don’t want to use it, give it to me! Give me your talent already, alright!?”

  Those unbelievable words entered her ears.

  –Talent, talent, you say?

  This person has a a talent nobody could mimick…an anthentic talent that was magical, god-like, yet he’s begging me for talent…?

  "…Naoto."

  Marie still could not understand, and she reached her hand out to her chest.

  Her palm wrapped around Naoto's hand grabbing the shirt, the skin that was burned.

  She moved her fingers, touching the surface. Naoto released his hand, her shirt.

  "Marie…"

  And like an extinguished flame, Naoto lost all enthusiasm.

  And then, Marie noticed,

  The grey eyes were showing large tears, about to fall at any given moment.

  …Ahh.

  This is really unbelievable.

  …This guy really envies me.

  I really can't understand

  …He really envies the talent of this useless, weakling in me.

  Having understood this fact, Marie felt the heart flare up on her parched, wilted heart.

  –And thus, Marie swung her right fist as proof.

  “Ack!?”

  Pak–! With a highly relieving sound, Naoto’s left cheek was spun to the side.

  And while he spun to his limit, Marie swung her left hand this time.

  Pak–!

  And with another highly relieving sound, Naoto's right cheek was spun to the side.

  "Phwah!?"

  Naoto's cheeks were swollen, and while he remained dumbfounded, Marie grabbed his shirt, standing up.

  Then, she kicked him in his defenseless abdomen.

  "Ack--!?"

  Marie followed up by quickly tripping Naoto's legs while he was bent over, twisting his arms, locking his joints, and holding him down.

  "--Wa-wait, timeout! St-stop it you idiot! You're breaking it, you're breaking it, something's coming out!"

  Naoto's joints were twisted to the limit as he tapped at the floor, giving up, screaming away.

  But Marie ignored that as she lashed out at Naoto,

  "Stop coming up with that shitty joke…!! You hear me!?"

  Marie felt the temperature rising in her due to agitation, saying,

  "You're the one wasting that ridiculous talent of yours--! If you can't make use of it, give me those ears!"

  If I have senses like this guy, who knows what I can do?

  Or--if this guy's skills are a little better, what will happen?

  …Do you think this fine lady here never had such a ridiculous thought in the first place?

  Marie yelled with all kinds of complicated emotions within her, and in turn, Naoto yelled back,

  "Alright--damn it! If you can do it, I'll give them to you right now! If this can solve the problem, take them! Or else--!"

  Naoto paused.

  "Give me your talents--you, think of something! Right now!"

  "--U, fine! Wait and see!"

  Marie yelled back at Naoto, only for the latter to widen his eyes.

  Upon seeing his expression, Marie understood.

  The saying went that the 'grass is greener on the other side'. Just as Marie did to Naoto, Naoto was envious of her. They were envious of each other, wanting each other's talents.

  Marie could not help but find it laughable.

  …Ahh! No, stop, stop! I’m not going to brood over this. Fine, it’s over. Everyone worked hard!

  Yeah. Thinking about everything from the beginning, it’s strange. Ridiculous.

  Why does this noble me have to hope for this idiot, this hopeless pervert, this madman who has a completely different worldview, and get dragged along by him.

  No way–it should be the other way around, right?

  Everything’s infuriating me! It’s annoying!

  Everything about me and other than me is annoying me!

  Argh, the world can just eat shit! Everyone can die! Die!!

  Anyway, everyone’s just doing whatever they want! You guys are just some shitty lower beings. Don’t cause me trouble without my permission! Kneel down! Knowtow!

  –So? Erm, where was I?

  Marie let go of her hands, releasing Naoto from the grappling hold, and thought.

  “–Right, yeah, that’s it! I’ll tell you how! This–can break through this damned situation!!”

&nbs
p; She squealed, gathering the attention of all those present.

  It’s simple. She thought as she told everyone.

  “In other words–if Naoto has my skills, we got a way. You just need to hear out the structure of the remaining gears, and build new circuits. On the other hand–I can do the same if I have Naoto’s instincts, right? Then–”

  Marie continued on,

  “Simply put, the reason why we’re in ‘checkmate’ under such a damned situation–is because of one thing. This situation isn’t for you and I to work separately, Naoto.”

  Marie turned her head around.

  In front of her was a scowling idiot, stretching his joints after breaking free.

  “So Naoto–time for some give and take.”

  Having said that, she looked at herself, her thoughts deliberately stopped.

  –Who’s the one wrong in the first place?

  What RyuZU said echoed in her mind.

  –Yeah, damn it. I don’t want to admit this no matter what, and it’s really unbelievable…

  Marie slowly inhaled, and looked around.

  There was Houko, Halter, Vermouth, Conrad, who was synchronized with Vermouth, and right in front of her eyes, Naoto.

  With all their stares gathered on her, she declared,

  “–Your senses are correct, so I’ll teach you how to use that feeling. On the other hand, teach me that feeling…!”

  “Make full use of this sense…?”

  Naoto repeated blankly, and Marie told him,

  “You said it before, didn’t you? No matter how you tried reading the textbooks and teaching materials, you don’t get what it means. In other words, you find something odd with it, right”

  “Ye-yeah…”

  Naoto nodded in response to the succinct point Marie made.

  “Then it’s all easy now–what’s wrong are the textbooks. Your instincts are correct.”

  “…Eh!?”

  Naoto shouted in terror, and then frantically indicated,

  “W-wait a second. I read the latest gear technology books!”

  “I guessed so. So…what’s wrong is the current gear technology.”

  Marie admitted it.

  …She admitted it.

  What she blurted out from her mouth caused her to quiver in agitation.

  She felt Houko, Halter and Vermouth watching on with bated breath.

  And Conrad, through Vermouth, let out a voice of terror,

  “Pardon me–Professor Marie. I do apologize for interrupting, but do allow me to finish. May I inquire what you are getting at…?”

  “–It’s as what we said. The gear technology we learned about is wrong.”

  One could sense Conrad gasp from the other end.

  This is to be expected. Marie thought.

  Admitting the errors of the current gear technology–would be equivalent to taking the initiative to deny herself and everyone who practiced that technology.

  However…

  “His instincts are definitely correct, proven by the Imaginary Gear’ in RyuZU that was repaired, and the abnormalities that were discovered precisely in the Core Tower. Since Naoto finds it strange–what’s wrong is us who assumed that we understood.”

  Marie finished, and then gave a glare to Naoto.

  “I don’t know the reasoning, and though I’m really unhappy about this, I really don’t know. One thing I can be sure of is that–your ability isn’t something that can be explained by exceptional hearing.”

  “That…erm, in that case, what is it?”

  While Naoto remained flustered, Marie continued,

  “You–know the ‘answer’.”

  “I know…the ‘Answer’?”

  I don’t understand, Naoto gave such a face, and Marie nodded at him, continuing on,

  “You had the ‘answer’ beforehand, and that’s how you know what it is, how it is supposed to work. Otherwise, how else would you know about how the trillions of little parts are supposed to work? Logically, it’s impossible. What you vaguely described as ‘voice’, your ‘answer’–was overly correct.”

  And then, she continued,

  “–There isn’t any ‘technology’ that uses such senses as premise. No matter what you do, it all comes back to ‘status quo’ for you, that you’ll try all the methods again before you find the answers.”

  –Right, it’s no wonder he can’t understand any class topics. It’s to be expected why he can’t understand the blueprints.

  If the questions, blueprints–all of them are ‘faulty’ in the first place, than Naoto, who knew of ‘perfection’, would have found it weird in the first place.

  “So I guess I’m the first one. I’ll help you–‘start with class’, a personal crash course from this Marie Bell Breguet designed for you. Dig your ears out and listen closely.”

  Upon hearing this, Naoto let out an audible gulp.

  He was seat properly, staring at Marie intently.

  With a serious look, Naoto was worried about missing out on every word Marie said, and even a single action.

  And Marie nodded lightly, beginning the lesson–

  “–Please analyze this in your mind. That’s all for the lesson.

  –It ended with this one line.

  “………Huh?”

  Naoto looked utterly disappointed, and scowled.

  Are you making fun of me? That livid face of his was to the point of acrimony, but Marie did not mind as she continued,

  “Since you can see the answer, you just need to analyze that answer and work backwards.”

  “Work backwards…?”

  “I guess…no, I’m certain that you’re in the state of hearing an orchestra performance before it happens.”

  “…”

  “Once the orchestra begins, you’ll start to be disappointed by the lackluster performance. Thus, you’ll identify all the instruments and performers one by one, until you figure out the problem, and start the performance again, repeating the same process all over–until it becomes a different tune altogether. Do you agree?”

  Marie asked, and Naoto remained silent.

  However, it was obvious from his startled face.

  –How did you know that muchHis face was practically stating that much.

  “What you need isn’t a blueprint, but a songsheet. You have a completely different method to us clockwork technicians, and you grasp things completely different from us–”

  Marie shook her head,

  “–No, it’s probably not a songsheet, but a waveform chart, I guess? Anyway, your understanding of gears is completely different from ordinary people. That’s the reason why you felt the awkwardness between the textbooks and what you know. What you see is rhythm, music…in other words, ‘flow’.”

  –For example, yes, like light.

  Light possessed two kinds of nature concurrently, ‘particles’ and ‘waves’.

  It was said that the issue of whether light was of particles or waves had bothered scientists since ancient times.

  If gears were to be described as light–then current gear technology would only view it as ‘particles’, while Naoto Miura understood it as ‘waves’.

  Nobody taught him, and he naturally listened to it–as ‘sound’.

  And no matter how unreasonable, illogical it was, his answer was correct.

  Just as light was ‘particle’ and ‘wave’–

  If she was to consider it this way, it was understandable.

  He had the talent to grasp the gear structure more precisely than anyone else in the world, yet why would he not understand basic technology?

  For that was because for Naoto, this damned genius–he was educated in a wrong manner.

  At the very least–to Naoto, ordinary gear technology was merely a shackle to him.

  It was to be expected. This was not self-explanatory. Perhaps it was a necessity.

  With her mere knowledge of gears as ‘particles’ alone, it was impossible for her to understand gears that act
ed like ‘waves’…

  Thus, what Naoto needed was not a theory on the technology.

  All he needed–was to follow his senses.

  “You don’t have to think about repairing it, or think about trying to put it all together. What you should do–is to analyze it, and go backwards.”

  Construct the perfect image in the mind.

  For Naoto, he simply had to thoroughly analyze the ‘perfect imagination’ similar to the real thing, reverse engineer it, and it would become the blueprint for his own use.

  Having finished this lesson, Naoto continued to stare at Marie intently.

  His eyes were filled with respect, admiration and envy.

  Back then, when she was in the ‘Meister Guild’, Marie’s fellow technicians would give her such gazes, the gazes that hailed her genius.

  And now that it was Naoto giving her such a look, Marie felt uncomfortable–and also humiliated, so she deliberately remained aloof, adding vitriol in her tone,

  “Right, now it’s your turn to teach me…”

  …I’m not a genius.

  Once she admitted this fact, Marie felt so calm, she was startled by it.

  She was merely a counterfeit, simply filling up, dolling up on her self-depreciation.

  A real genius. That would refer to her older sister, her father–or this infuriating pervert in front of her.

  Marie had talent too. She put in the effort, and showed results.

  But that was merely all.

  She was unable to break out. She was adept at using what others created, but was unable to create anything brand new, anything unprecedented.

  She was unable to use her own power to make the impossible possible.

  And because she understood this more than anyone else, Marie forced herself to think,

  –I’m someone who thinks that there’s nothing impossible in the world.

  It was not out of pride or dignity.

  It was a definition Marie set for herself, one she definitely could not contort.

  And for this definition, Marie denied all the common sense that formed her.