Clockwork Planet - Volume 03

by Kamiya Yuu

  “And to me, this Clockwork Planet is full of doubts. It’s impossible for humans to recreate the world using gears…!”

  Gennai remained seated on the chair, his voice husky as he continued,

  “An impossible existence, an impossible technology. We aren’t sure if this world truly exist. In this situation, I think there’s a need to let ‘Y’ understand such despair and the limits of humanity–I’ll say that this is the motive.”

  Saying that, Gennai leaned on the back of the chair.

  He looked down, and looked at the right arm he lost.

  “…I may have lost…but does this mean ordinary humans aren’t able to defy God? If you want to kill me, do so. This world is ultimately an illusion, just a created illusion created by that arrogant God who called himself human…I have no regret.”

  Gennai calmly prompted.

  His voice and tone was cold, weary, and thoroughly defeated.

  “–”

  If it had been, Marie thought.

  If it had been a few days ago–when Akihabara was hit by the electromagnetic pulse, causing everything to spoil, perhaps she would have agreed with this old man’s words.

  That despair, that feeling of mistrust, that impression that the whole world was merely an illusion, if back then–

  –No, but now she understood.

  That was not an illusion.

  And with such belief and understanding, she spoke,

  “–Stop joking around.”

  Her words, more forceful and convicted than her voice, let slip.

  Gennai lifted his face, his gloomy grey eyes filled with defiance as he glared at Marie.

  But Marie did not back down.

  –The world was certainly covered by an ‘illusion’.

  Once this layer of illusion was peeled off the Earth, what was left would be–this ‘Clockwork Planet’.

  Naoto Miura merely heard the sounds of the world after having peeled off the layers.

  The present Marie understood this really well.

  –The world allowed for paradoxes.

  Common sense, existing concepts, current theories–those things were merely ‘illusions’ layered over the world.

  To humanity at least, the universe was an epoch, physics was merely a cripple.

  By changing viewpoints, RyuZU’s ‘Imaginary Gear’ and AnchoR’s ‘Perpetual Gear’ would exist without paradox, and there would be no doubt to them.

  Back then, the world Marie saw–what Naoto showed by peeling off the layer of illusion from the world–everything was merely ‘nature’.

  This world was an illusion, and yet at the same time, truly existed–it certainly was not some convenient spell.

  Even the current gear technology, which Marie assumed to be wrong, was not a ‘completely different thing’ from the knowledge she possessed.

  The difference was so miniscule, some minor things that appeared like an illusion–

  –And because of this, Marie concluded. She was able to conclude.

  The amazing thing was that the words she said were the same as the words Gennai heard.

  “It’s up to you if you want to admit defeat and grumble over here. It’s your choice to think what you want, but–”

  Hearing these words, Gennai’s eyes were widened to the limit.

  Marie let out a sharp presence as she glared at the dull grey, metallic eyes, saying,

  “You’re being too arrogant in your subjective words–who allowed you to speak for ‘humanity’!?”

  And so,

  “Don’t group us along with you. We haven’t despaired. We are different from you.”

  The emerald eyes were burning with tranquil flames.

  “Don’t you dare define our limits as human when you gave up yourself.”

  Marie declared.

  She knew that Naoto beside her was snickering away.

  Gennai stared back grimly with a look of realization, lamenting,

  “…I see. So there are two of ‘Y’.”

  His lips were contorted into a sneering expression as he said this to Naoto and Marie.

  “No matter how you two continue to exalt humanity, I will not agree with that–it is human nature to reach its limit. If you don’t learn and understand this before manipulating the ways of the world, how can you possibly call yourselves humans?”

  Gennai’s eyes remained dull as he stared at their faces.

  “No matter how unscrupulous we are, no matter how much we have to dirty ourselves, we’re going to repeat our failures over and over and over again with our ugly faces covered in dirt, harping over our minor victories; that is ‘humanity’–it’s the same even if we aren’t the ones winning.”

  Saying this, Gennai paused.

  “Yes, for example–that man is a perfect example of one.”

  At that moment–

  Within the dock, where only their talking voices could be heard, there was loud noises.

  “What’s going on–!?”

  The crowd looked around in shock, and then immediately understood the reason.

  The resonance communicator in the dock activated on its own.

  –Someone hacked in from the outside.

  And before anyone could move, the channel was connected.

  “Hahaha–I suppose that will refer to me? Mr Gennai–“

  –Who’s that?

  The voice of a man coming from the communicator caused everyone present to have the same doubt.

  No, Gennai was the only one sneering away, staring at the communicator without a word.

  Seeing Gennai’s reaction, Marie had a hypothesis.

  But before she could say it, the voice announced the answer,

  “Ah, as for who I am–you’ll understand if I say ‘mastermind’, right?”

  “–!!”

  Marie nearly shouted out loud.

  The mastermind–the one inciting Gennai from behind, as Naoto hinted.

  But it was unexpected that the other party would contact them like this.

  And while they were unable to hide their surprise, he continued on nonchalantly,

  “Oh, right! Before you show any shock, mind opening the window first?”

  “…Window?”

  Halter responded skeptically.

  “It’s not a trap at all. Now then, hurry up. You’re going to miss it!”

  His inscrutable, jovial voice–filled with malice, prompted them.

  …There was a limit to how suspicious it could be.

  Having realized that, both Marie and Naoto however exchanged glances–and nodded. Marie then quickly turned to open the rusted and sealed window lock, opening the window.

  The seawater-flavored breeze grazed her cheeks. However–

  “Don’t see anything…”

  Right when Marie muttered this–

  –A boom shook through the night sky, echoing.

  Marie was nearly knocked down by this tremendous book, and in her panic, leaned out of the window to look up at the sky.

  The source of the boom–was something that broke through the sound barrier

  Marie’s eyes were fixed upon the machine that flew towards the sky.

  –A tactical fighter jet?

  There was a battalion of more than 20 units, flying towards the other end of the cloudless night sky, vanishing,

  Where are they going…no, more importantly–there are weapons and machines I don’t know of?

  The moment Marie had this doubt, the mastermind answered,

  “So how about it? Did you see it? –Those things that just flew by were the latest products of the Vacherons!”

  “What…Vacherons…!?”

  Marie turned her head from the window, letting out a terrified shriek. At the next moment–

  –A flash turned the night completely white.

  And a few seconds later, an ‘explosion noise’ incomparable to before rocked the atmosphere, sea and city.

  The mastermind then squealed in delight over the communi
cator,

  “Why yes–they predicted such a situation prepared an anti-electromagnetic weapon–and that’s one of them! That enemy is the half-destroyed ‘Yatsukahagi’, but nobody else knows of this fact other than you guys!”

  Through those words, Marie understood.

  In other words, the explosion from before–was that massive weapon getting crushed by the Vacheron weapons.

  “This is the greatest exhibition of them all! Thank you for your assistance–eh? What you say?”

  The voice from the communicator stopped, and then, followed up with some malicious laughter.

  “Haha, I really want to thank you again. I’m hearing that at this moment, all the countries are coming in now!”

  “You..!”

  Marie hissed with a vengeful look.

  At this time, with the threat of electromagnetic weapons clear for all to see, that they dealt with it–

  The objective was obvious.

  The declining fame of the Vacherons would rise accordingly…

  With Japan trying to clean up the mess that was the situation, they could not stop the Enterprises from interfering..

  But that meant–

  “You guys–were aiming for that right from the beginning, right!?”

  Marie shouted, quivering away as she was unable to express her rage.

  Anti-electromagnetic weapon? There was no way they could have developed it and completed it on this day.

  Something they prepared just in case? What a joke–they prepared it ‘just for this thing’!

  This group of people were secretly controlling the politics, creating crisis, and intended to end matters as it was. The anti-electromagnetic weapons were for this purpose!

  They merely did it–to promote their own products…!

  However, the mastermind let out muffled laugh, his voice answering Marie’s growl,

  “Hahaha, how is that possible!? I really will like to thank you for thinking so highly of us, but I can’t see the future. This is merely one of the good predicted outcomes being used for all its worth–however…”

  He paused.

  “Even if I can’t see the future, your actions are still within my control, you know? Hahaha–!!”

  –This guy…,

  Marie was extremely agitated, her body increasingly chilly–her fists shivering due to fear.

  What they did–even that kind of miracle was capitalized for something.

  However, with a sharp glare at the communicator, Naoto said,

  “Stop spouting that obvious ‘lie’ with that disgustingly mysterious voice, old man.”

  “Oh–?”

  …A lie? Marie turned towards Naoto, who continued,

  “How’s it possible for you to say that everything we did–was all within your expectations? If us snatching AnchoR is part of your expectations, aren’t you being too kind here?”

  –That’s true. Marie gulped.

  She was nearly bluffed by this mastermind’s facade.

  Naoto was right. Since this man sent AnchoR to protect Gennai and the others, given that they knew about that ridiculous fighting ability, was there any reason to give her up?

  “I suppose you wanted to sink the capital, start a war, and strike big money–? No…”

  Naoto noted, and turned his head around. Marie recalled what she heard in Kyoto a few weeks ago. She interrogated a certain military Technical Force member, who yelled,

  –“You guys caused that incident in Amsterdam 2 years ago, right!?”–

  The rumors of deliberately destroying a Core Tower to analyze the technology–was that…

  Halter sighed as he muttered from the side,

  “…I see. If the Coup d’etat did succeed, you could raise your prestige as a supporter. If it failed, you can promote weapons used to fight against that electromagnetic weapon. If it worked, the Capital will fall, and you’ll analyse the technology and start wars, selling weapons and letting your business prosper–such typical scumbags.”

  “Hahaha, it’s an honor to be praised by you. Or that is what I should be saying, no?”

  Halter’s curses were replied with mocking from the other side, and Marie was dumbfounded.

  …What’s going on? What kind of mindset allowed him to do such a lowlife thing?”

  Who exactly–at that moment, Marie followed her instincts, and yelled,

  “You’re–not of Vacheron, right–who are you!?”

  The logic followed up a tad later, and she yelled.

  This man who called himself the mastermind sounded as though he belonged to the Vacherons–but it was impossible.

  The Five Enterprises truly had a tremendous influence.

  Normally, on this planet that run on clockwork technology, and since the clockwork technology was the pulse, the 5 Enterprises, who controlled the technology and had the authority, had power that exceeded that of the ISS. However, there were only a few people who could carry out such plans–in two ways.

  First, it had to be someone of the position equivalent to the leaders of the 5 Enterprises, and–

  Second, that person would never consider the risk of such matters being exposed–madness.

  At the very least, even the Vacherons could not come up with a conspiracy to sink a city, analyze the technology, and incite wars.

  Even if they did tolerate such evil–this really was not something an Enterprise would give the go sign for, considering the risk they would take if their objectives were exposed.

  However, the one who called himself a mastermind answered Marie’s question with a mocking tone,

  “Hahaha–who am I? I never thought of this question before. Besides, I hardly had the chance to introduce myself.”

  The mastermind cheerfully noted.

  And then, before Marie could growl, the mastermind asked,

  “Speaking of which, I do want to ask–do you know what the outside world calls you? 12 hours after footage of you dominating the Palace was leaked, and now there’s nobody on Earth who doesn’t know about you–“

  He then continued with a chuckle,

  “–The ‘Second Upsilon, said to be the second coming of ‘Y’! Everyone said that ‘Y’ in the past came to save the world, but this time, he showed up to destroy–! Oh, such a cool name! A nameless person like me is really jealous of it!”

  However, He then switched to a peaceful tone, continuing,

  “–‘Y’ will ‘never surpass X’–don’t you think that it’s a relic of the past? That’s why I shall name myself with a cooler name–“

  Saying that, the mastermind paused,

  And he declared,

  “–I’m ‘Ω’. Of the same line of business as you, the real deal of course..”

  …Marie remembered that name to heart–Omega. That probably was a name he randomly thought of, but it did not matter.

  For her soul was telling her that this was the enemy they had to defeat.

  The mastermind ignored Marie’s determination as he continued to play dumb, saying,

  “But you can just take the old fashioned route and think of us as the ‘evil organization’. And just to add, it’s a pity that Unit 04 was stolen, but it’s just a weapon after all. Since we know that it’s ‘something that is tagged ‘perpetual’ but ultimately able to be destroyed, I lost interest in it. If you don’t mind such an ancient scrap, you can take it all you want! Hahaha–!!”

  While the man who called himself Omega continued to laugh out loud, his voice filled with pure evil–

  “–Shut that annoying mouth of yours, damned bastard!”

  Naoto agitatedly raised his voice to shout.

  And for some reason, he glared at the ceiling, howling,

  “–Stop hiding at such a place yapping away. Come down and say the same thing to me face to face if you dare! I’m going to punch your face in!!”

  –After an instance

  “Haha–“

  Omega laughed. The laughter was so sudden, so shrill,

  “
–Haha, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA–!!”

  That mad laughter dragged on, and Omega chimed in,

  “I really couldn’t believe it until I confirmed it myself. I see that you really can ‘hear anything’, young Naoto! This is the only way to explain everything, but I never thought such a ‘power’ really exists–oh my, the world is so interesting, isn’t it, young Naoto!?”

  And in response to Omega’s words, Marie thought “this is bad”, and regretted it all.

  The reason why this man contacted them and rattled on for so long–

  Was to affirm–their ‘trump card’ Naoto’s ability!

  Omega continued cheerfully,

  “I do apologize for saying something overboard, young Naoto. I really do have a lot of interest in you, and you’re the one I want to analyze more than the ‘Heaven’s Pillar’. As an apology–to be honest, the analysis of the ‘Perpetual Gear’ is incomplete, and I really couldn’t bring myself to give up on Unit 04, so I shall leave it to you. Sorry to taunt you.”

  “Like hell it is! AnchoR had always been mine. Go die already!”

  “Naoto! Why are you…!”

  Marie growled. Even if it was out of defiance, they lost out by revealing their ‘trump card’. However–

  “…The hatch’s closed.”

  “Eh…?”

  These sudden words from Naoto caused Marie to shut up.

  Naoto continued to give a hostile glare at the ceiling, saying,

  “…There’s a massive stealth bomb around 20,000m tall. If it’s a bomb, RyuZU’s functions can handle it. But I just heard the sound of the resonance cannon AnchoR used before.”

  Hearing those words, Marie widened her eyes,

  “–Resonance Cannon? How is it possible to have a Resonance Cannon with more than 20,000m range!?”

  That range was beyond three times that of the realistic–no, theoretical limit. However–

  “So it’s something similar to a Resonance Cannon? I can conclude that it’s the other voice of that guy.”

  Saying this, Naoto took a breath, and continued looking up into the sky with disgust, saying,

  ““Guess where I am. If you get it correct, I’ll spare you. If you get it wrong, I’ll kill you”–that’s how it is.”