Volume 8C, 62: Rester in the Great Outdoors

Volume 8C, Chapter 62: Rester in the Great Outdoors

Where is it?

It is here

But what does finding it

Teach me?

Point Allocation (Mikawa Mystery)

There’s the ocean, thought Terumasa.

The summer sun shined down on the waves of vast Mikawa Bay.

He was a little disappointed he wasn’t on a sandy beach. Instead, he stood on the cracked pavement of an ancient road. The road had a shallow slant and it vanished below the waves a few dozen meters away.

Gravel and pieces of the ruins had been washed up, creating a wall.

The city and the ruins of Mikawa had been here.

“This isn’t what I expected Mikawa to look like.”

He had never been, but based on what his friends had said, he had imagined the giant New Nagoya Castle, dark clouds in the sky, and mysterious phenomena and monsters running wild.

…That’s generally how it looks in games.

Mikawa was neutral ground and had served as an intermediary with P.A. Oda, but it had still belonged to the Testament Union and so games usually called it Miwaka or some other variation on the name. When you visited that overcast land, a shady merchant who spoke like a teacher would sell you the second-best weapons in the game but they always came with a penalty.

But now…

“It’s just the ocean.”

There was no New Nagoya Castle, no dark clouds, and no city of mysterious phenomena.

Only a costal wall of wreckage and the vast ocean.

Landslides were still common on the damaged part of the land, so more wreckage would enter the water and get washed up to add to the wall. Even now, he could see large pillars of water on the east-west horizon, showing him where parts of the wreckage wall were being torn down by a landslide.

In the long term, the important items of this era would sink to the bottom of Mikawa Bay to form a new layer that helped define the bay’s future shape.

While the bay continued to grow and change, Terumasa’s group had stationed themselves in the vestiges of the ruins to the north of the bay.

A shrine maiden upperclassman, who could read the terrain, had confirmed that spot was situated between two rivers and would be relatively unaffected by the ocean.

“Of course, when things collapse, it happens all at once, so maybe it doesn’t matter much, Ikeda-kun.”

When she said that with a smile, he could only agree.

For an M.H.R.R. resident, standing on the ground and viewing the entrance to the ocean was a rare experience. The closest ocean to M.H.R.R. was the Seto Inland Sea and the North Sea felt more like a shadow than an ocean.

But this was the Pacific Ocean. The sun was bright and the sea breeze was blowing.

…This isn’t what makes the Far East’s north and south residents so different, is it?

“They do eat different fish too.”

In M.H.R.R., he had never had a chance to eat bonito.

When he had worked on repairing the Azuchi, the people who went down to Satomi had done some fishing to resupply on food. He had eaten bonito sashimi for the first time then.

His first impression had been how strong its flavor was, but he thought it would be better cut thin and served with a European sauce or dip instead of cut thick and served with soy sauce. Nabeshima had laughed at him when he said so, which had reminded him she had spent time in the Dark Continent where she could have eaten both northern and southern Far Eastern fish.

…Culturally, Kantou is a lot more rural.

He felt sort of left behind by it all.

But he didn’t need to get used to it. It was already August 24. He had spent a little over 10 days in Kantou, but nearly two weeks had passed since he arrived here. He was familiar enough with the local food that he was pretty sure eating it in the future would remind him of his time here. Even now…

“IkeTeru! Let’s get-get-get! A late lunch-lunch-lunch!”

“You mean that thing where they catch one of the wild Nagoya cochins?”

That was apparently a Nagoya specialty. He didn’t know if it was in the Testament or if Lord Motonobu was behind it, but Nagoya had built a farm for the Nagoya cochin which was known as a local gourmet ingredient. Hearing the farm had survived the trouble here, his warriors had gone on an expedition there the day after arriving. They had returned half a day later after suffering a humiliating defeat against a flock of giant chickens towering more than 4 meters tall. They had held a grudge after that, so…

“Let’s fry them all!”

“We can’t eat the skin if we don’t pluck them first!”

“Hey, check this out! The footmark one left when it kicked him looks like an arrow pointing to his crotch!”

“Were they aiming there!?”

They had all gulped at the Nagoya cochin’s combat abilities, but after making some rice balls out of rice cooked in sake, they had left the following day on a very drunk mission to capture some giant chickens. Osakabe-hime had run a search in her library to help them out, so their opinion of her had risen. And their opinion of me dropped. How is that fair? But…

“They really didn’t need to erect a sign saying ‘Land Seized by Ikeda Team’ at the farm.”

“Using your authority-ity-ity?”

“But this place is neutral ground. Well, I’m sure the experts can work it all out, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

He wanted to focus on his work instead. Because…

“A lot of the wreckage has been pulled out into the bay.”

Those really are ruins, thought Terumasa.

The giant buildings from the ruins were a lot heavier than the reinforced wooden buildings that used modern construction. They were causing more changes to the bay than he had expected.

His initial simulation had assumed most of Mikawa was made up of reinforced wooden buildings, so they had suggested the waves would wash everything up onto shore. Even if the receding waves pulled it back, it would be relatively light sand and dirt that would rise to the surface and be washed back out again.

The information from the Azuchi’s trips above Mikawa and from the ninjas sent by cooperative academies had reached the same conclusion.

But that had been wrong.

From the outside, it looked like the wreckage covered the edge of the bay and was absent near the river mouths where they were.

But the ocean floor told a different story.

There were ruins there.

The heavy materials from the ruins and the wreckage of the paved roads formed a ring along the edge of the ocean floor.

After the explosion tore deep into the bay, the ruins must have collapsed and then been scooped up by the water flowing in from the ocean.

…Thanks to their weight, they rolled up onto the land.

After the explosion, the current flowing into the newly formed hole must have been very powerful. Looking back past their transport ship, he could see a tall building stabbed into the mountain slope.

Similar wreckage could be seen all around. The current had clearly carried them along, using the rising bay floor as a ramp to launch them into the air.

But that was only a fraction of the whole. What had happened to everything else?

“Before the water receded, the heavier wreckage piled up along Mikawa Bay’s original coast. Once the water did recede, that stopped the lighter wreckage, forming a dam.”

That had settled down within the bay and sunk further as the original coast collapsed.

They hadn’t fully surveyed the bay floor, but from their survey of the area straight out from here, they knew the ruins had sunk along the curving path of a shoal.

And even among the modern structures, the most important facilities had used heavier materials.

Most likely, quite a lot was sunk in the center of the bay or past the submerged heavy wreckage.

The wreckage in front of him now was what had slipped past all that to reach here.

“We need to concentrate our salvage efforts on the ocean, don’t we?”

For that, they had asked M.H.R.R. to send some excavators and ether detectors.

M.H.R.R. used them to excavate resources from the ocean floor in the North Sea.

Those were already powered up. Large scaffolding had been fixed in place on the ocean using gravitational control and the machines were visible at work searching deep below the waves at points calculated by Osakabe-hime.

At the same time, they were investigating the shallower areas and the walls of wreckage.

“Now, then.”

Terumasa turned toward a point low to the ground behind him.

Several figures lay atop a waterproof mat laid out in front their transport ship.

Those were automatons. They were missing many of their parts, but…

“These automatons served Kazuno and fought Tres España on the outskirts of Nagoya.”

He had finally found them. They had been in the wall of wreckage to the west or in the shallows, but…

“The first order of business is seeing if they still have their cores, but then we can start salvaging their souls. Once that’s done, we can finally reach some conclusions.”

“Work-ork-ork-ork?”

“Testament,” confirmed Terumasa. “I can’t avoid it now that we’ve salvaged some. The excavators searching the bay out there are more just in case we can find something more.”

The occasional red light would rise into the sky from the ocean.

“Why do I have to spend all my time playing with dolls like a shut-in after visiting the beach during the summer?”

“Wowwww! It’s the ocean! The beach! So much better than spending our time underground like a shut-in!”

A tall shadow fell on the beach with arms raised.

Shorter shadows removed their clothing while the tall one began some warmup stretches.

One of the shorter ones called out to the tall one.

“Is this your first time at the beach, Sakon?”

“Testament! They apparently go to the beach for an elementary school class trip, but I skipped elementary school.” Sakon put her hands on her hips and looked out into the Seto Inland Sea. “So I’m so glad I was given this job. I could see the ocean from the Aki lodging house, but Aki only has sheer cliff faces. I can’t thank Mitsunari-sama enough for giving me time off on a perfect mainland beach.”

“I deserve no thanks,” said Mitsunari. “And I am sorry for arranging an Aki tour for the previous day off.”

Hirano smiled and waved her hand dismissively.

“No, that was a learning experience for me. Aki is partnered with the Tsurugi Shrine, but that gave me a chance to see what things are really like there. And given how many extra courses Kasuya ordered at dinner, I think she enjoyed it too.”

“You ate a lot yourself, Hirano,” said Kasuya. “I will admit I got a little carried away trying to keep up with Sakon.”

“The workers went completely pale, didn’t they!?” said Sakon. “But in hindsight, what kind of meat even was that? It didn’t taste like beef.”

“It was Tajima beef. If you liked it, I can arrange for a different dish using it today. K.P.A. Italia can get ingredients from Hexagone Française and Tres España,” said Mitsunari.

“We can get foreign ingredients here?” asked Sakon.

“Aki has no land, so it must compete in commerce, Kohime. Thus, they show off their control over other nations and show off their own culture’s strength by cooking foreign ingredients with their own seasonings. The sweetmeats you were scarfing down last week were made with citrus fruits from Shikoku.”

“I-I was not scarfing them down! They served more every time I ate some, so I was seeing how far they would go. And no one calls them sweetmeats anymore. We just call them sweets!”

“You have inherited the name of an ancient Far Eastern warrior, so try talking like one!”

The helmet lying on a towel argued with Sakon while a small figure stepped forward.

It was Ootani.

His miniature form ran across the beach wearing only swim trunks and a warrior’s helmet. And he raised a hand to the others.

“I shall go first to ensure it is safe!”

The others turned to him in interest and watched him enter the ocean as if tackling the waves.

Kasuya decided she should probably ask the question on her mind.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Mitsunari? He won’t crackle away into nothing when the water hits him, will he?”

“Testament. There is nothing to worry about, Kasuya-sama. Our ether structure cannot be broken down by water. It could be a concern if the water had a high ether conductivity, though. Isn’t that right, Ootani-kun?”

“Testament! I appreciate the concern, Kasuya-sama! Spending time with all of you has taught me that Mitsunari-kun is not the only decent member of the Ten Spears!”

“What did Yoshiaki and Angie do to you?”

“Anyway,” said Ootani. “I’m off!”

A wave immediately swallowed him up. And…

“…”

Sakon clenched her fists and stared into the water expectantly. After a minute of nothing, Kasuya had another question.

“Hirano? What could you add to water to increase its ether conductivity?”

“Well, I’m a little afraid to say it at the moment, but…salt.”

“Ootani-kun! Ootani-kun! Please tell me you’re still out there!”

“The ocean is a dangerous place,” muttered Sakon, using her height to search for him.

Ootani was found at an even smaller size, tangled up in seaweed and unable to float back up to the surface.

“Th-thank you so much! I shall find a way to repay you while slaying the dragons underground!”

“You had better. Kohime has been getting lazy now that she is too comfortable with it.”

For the first time in her life, Kasuya saw a data entity prostrating to an eboshi helmet and the helmet responding. Another surprise was the effect of Sakon’s large size when she tried to use a bamboo snorkel.

“I float too much to dive down. Is this supposed to be a practical experiment in buoyancy?”

And…

“You’re surprisingly comfortable in the water, Hirano.”

“I purify myself every day at the Tsurugi Shrine. And now that Aki is in the ocean, the ley line route provides a direct connection.”

She scooped up the water to show it glowed.

That was ether light.

“The ether concentration is high enough that I can make it react if I concentrate. Although actually using it would require washing the salt out of the seawater, so the cleansing process would be a pain.”

“Testament. That must be why the water feels so ticklish on my skin.”

Mitsunari had hesitantly entered the water after they applied an anti-conduction spell coating to her. At this point, she had moved out as far as Sakon. Whether she floated or not appeared to be determined by the difference in data density, not by weight, so while she could take baths fine…

“I am very heavy here.”

“Should I lift you up?” asked Sakon.

“No, do not bother. This is data worth gathering.”

Mitsunari turned to the southeast. Their current home was there. Aki was formed from several cliff faces and the bedrock.

“From below, you can really tell how much bigger it is than an aerial ship,” said Kasuya.

“Yes, it’s even bigger than the Azuchi. And even in its split state, each portion is taller than any existing aerial ship,” said Hirano.

Kasuya found this situation a little strange. As a Loup-Garou, she was from Hexagone Française, but as a student, she was from M.H.R.R.

“I never imagined I would be welcomed to K.P.A. Italia as a VIP.”

“Agreed. I feel bad when they give me such nice ships for my trips to and from the Tsurugi Shrine. It reminds me I need to do my job right.”

Hirano had already made two round trips between here and the Tsurugi Shrine, the Oda clan’s primary shrine. She generally stayed here for four days a week. But in Kasuya’s opinion…

“I prefer having you here since it really helps us make progress underground.”

“I put in a real effort before, so it looks like we’ll finish before the break ends, doesn’t it?”

“Testament. There are one or two more every day. If we can’t deal with half of them during the morning, I’m really going to get worried.”

“Honestly, it’s an easy job for me since the vanguard provides a barrier between me and them.”

Kasuya found her job easy since the rear guard provided support, so that probably meant they were both in the right place.

…But I need to make Hirano’s job even easier if I can.

The dragon slaying below Aki was a lot like a duel since the battlefield and opponents were limited. The battle came down to plowing through with brute force, so other than the opponents being dragons, there wasn’t anything special about them.

But a real battlefield was different.

Battlefields were much larger and more complex and so many more individuals and groups would clash there. Hirano’s job as a representative of the Tsurugi Shrine would be to provide divine protections and perform infrastructure management.

Kasuya hoped they could reach the point where Hirano could focus on that.

But Hirano…

“If I don’t train with my sword arrows, we’ll be in trouble when we need one. We can’t underestimate Musashi’s strength.”

“The Battles of Yamazaki and Shizugatake come first, remember?”

“True,” agreed Hirano before pointing toward the beach. She probably meant they should get out of the water and take a break, but… “My ether purification worked better than I thought, so I want to make some divine protection adjustments. That way tonight’s dragon slaying will go a lot more smoothly.” She brushed her hair back, sending water flying. “How familiar are you with the Shibata Team, Kasuya?”

“Eh? I worked with them during what I guess you could call my training period, but I was way out on the edge of their territory and mostly just kept in touch with their local treasurer. Really, I’m more familiar with the Emperor’s soldiers and the Hashiba Team that brought me supplies. It didn’t help that the Shibata Team was traveling a lot to battle Sviet Rus.”

“I periodically interact with them, so it sounds like I know them better than you.” Hirano sighed and parted the waves as she walked toward the beach. “I want to avoid fighting amongst ourselves if at all possible. Even if the Testament says we win.”

We might not know each other very well, but we belong to the same shrine, thought Hirano.

Shinto wasn’t picky. The gods all had their own authorities and they gave their worshipers divine protections based on those authorities, but you could generally get something beyond your god’s authority using either the connections between the gods or through the greatest foundation and most notable trait of Shinto - the purification process by which difficulties were swept away.

To put it another way, the Shinto gods all had different specializations, but since they all had the basic “sweep away difficulties” skill, they could all respond to any kind of difficulty using it.

Thanks to that, Shinto had few restrictions on the gods’ authorities and lax rules for the worshipers compared to most other polytheistic religions.

Through the Age of the Gods, the gods had been in charge of their respective authorities and had swept away the difficulties that stood on the way of their authority rather than directly give people divine protections. But that had no longer been enough once the people began living in the heavens.

Thanks to that, the Shinto gods were much laxer about helping people out and Hirano helped arrange that help. However…

“Shinto doesn’t have a strong concept of enemies and allies. It’s a major benefit and major flaw in the religion.”

So…

“When we fight each other, we all have our difficulties purified away, so we can all fight at our best. So the more we work at it, the better we can wield our strength. But…”

“But one side has to win.”

“Yes, that’s the problem.”

Shinto was lax. It didn’t discriminate between anyone. She wished all of the P.A. Oda worshipers of the Tsurugi Shrine could continue living peacefully with each other. It was her job to watch over them when they visited the shrine, so she also knew they all wished the same thing.

They had had a record number of New Year’s visitors this year and she knew that was a sign that they were all wishing happiness for everyone else as the Apocalypse approached.

But all of that was doomed to come crumbling down in a history recreation battle.

And that battle was likely coming up soon.

Her feet dug into the sand. The wet sand. The dark sand. When she reached the dry, light sand, it felt hot below her feet. She preferred the cool sand, but…

“I know we have to go through with it since Hashiba insists on strict adherence with the history recreation, but it’s disappointing we have to fight against people working toward the same thing as us.”

“In a broader sense, our battle with Musashi is the same.”

Kasuya walked up alongside her and shook her body, sending water flying from her hair.

“No one out there isn’t hoping for some kind of happiness,” said Kasuya. “And, Hirano, you empathize too much with the people you help. Everyone might remember that you helped them, but they don’t remember you as much as you think they do.”

“I can’t help it.”

Kasuya was still dripping when they arrived at the towel, so Hirano reached out, took a charm, and handed it to Kasuya.

“Can I really us this?” asked Kasuya, since she was a nonhuman.

“It only removes filth, which it mostly identifies physically. So…”

Hirano attached it to Kasuya’s hair and pressed the activation tag. When she passed it across the hair, something white fell from the bottom of the charm.

Salt.

“It covers a spatial range, so you can just pass it over the top of the hair. Brushing with it could harm your hair, after all. It’s normally used to cleanse someone before healing them.”

“Blood and seawater may be similar for a Loup-Garou.”

When Kasuya used the charm like a brush, a pale light scattered along with the salt. Her Loup-Garou grooming divine protection was working with the charm to purify the seawater.

Being a werewolf comes with its perks, Hirano thought but didn’t say. She worked with divine protections enough to know it had its downsides as well.

So to change the subject, she returned to their previous topic.

“I really can’t help it.”

“That you love helping people?”

“Yes.” Hirano had said this countless times before. “Because my mother told me so much about how hopeless a person father was.”

“It was the exact opposite with my mother.”

“It really was,” agreed Hirano, recalling what their mothers had been like. “My mother always seemed so happy when she talked about him. I think that’s why I love hopeless people so much.”

“You sound pretty hopeless yourself.”

“Oh, but make no mistake. Being undisciplined isn’t the same thing as being hopeless.”

“How so?”

“They can’t sit around relying on money or anything like that and they can’t just complain all the time. I like to help people who screw up everything they try to do, enjoy pointless things, and get by without complaining.”

“That’s a tall order. Or a complex one, at least.”

Maybe so, but I want someone who is really worth helping. If they can do everything themselves, they don’t need my help. It would be one thing if they relied on me where I knew my skills lie, but how can I trust them if they get spoiled and demand more than that? I would have to clench my fist and make a very strong argument!

She ended up firing herself up, but that was just how strongly she felt about this.

“It’s unusual for you to talk about these things, Hirano. I appreciate it.”

“Is it? I remember saying this a lot.”

“We all have things like this. I know I do.”

“Fair enough,” agreed Hirano, grabbing a towel and drying herself off. She wanted to lie down on the towel for some sunbathing, but something else caught her attention.

Aki.

“Kasuya.” She looked up at the giant structure. “What are your thoughts on the pope’s dream we are fighting?”

Hirano had a question on her mind.

They were currently working to battle the pope’s dream. Based on the reports she had seen, the pope had special dream powers. In that case…

“Does this mean the pope predicts something like this will be arriving in the future?”

“It would be very bad if so.” Kasuya pressed her lips together. “We are defeating them quickly now, but I can tell they are growing stronger every time. What if that means the pope’s dream is growing clearer and there is some ‘final form’ we have to deal with?”

“They have all been some form of Terrestrial Dragon so far, but it might just be that those are the only kind of dragon she is familiar with.”

“Testament.” Kasuya smiled bitterly and shrugged. “I don’t want to even imagine how difficult the battles would be if we did this again during a winter break training camp.”

“Agreed,” said Hirano with a bitter smile of her own.

…We have so much to think about.

“We have to face Musashi, but the Battle of Shizugatake comes first. I wonder how Fukushima and the underclassmen like Kani feel about that?”

“Oh? You hadn’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

“I see she isn’t sitting down after all,” noted Kasuya with a smile toward Sakon splashing around in the distance catching fish. “Kani is really enjoying herself and the Shibata Team helped her upgrade her equipment. Fukushima, on the other hand, went into the mountains for some mental training.”

“That sounds awfully independent for a group training camp.”

Hirano heard Sakon saying “look, a shark” before she continued.

“Fukushima has a tendency to overthink things, so I do hope she is careful.”

“The mountains get cold at night even during the summer, so I need to be careful.”

Fukushima was gathering a bundle of branches that had lost their leaves.

She was on a mountain about half a day’s travel away from the Shibata Team’s fleet. She was about halfway up the mountain, right where the trees began to change. She had set up camp near a small waterfall in a rocky area there.

This was her second day out here.

She had switched off her divine transmissions once she had completed her preparations. Takenaka had taught her how to send an emergency transmission if necessary, but she had no intention of using that.

The place was so quiet.

That was why she had initially set up a spell field for keeping animals away and placed her tent near the waterfall.

…But the waterfall was so loud I couldn’t sleep last night.

The sound and the vibration in the ground had been a surprise.

The water also carried branches and rocks that fell into the basin and those more unusual sounds always caught her attention.

Once the sun had risen, she had moved the tent. The waterfall put a lot of moisture in the air, so she had moved her camp to the south side of the slope to avoid getting chilled and keep her luggage dry.

Then she had finally gotten some sleep and awoken to find it was blazing hot.

She had chosen a very sunny spot for her tent and she had also closed the tent’s ventilation to keep the waterfall’s moisture out.

Once it was too hot to bear any longer, she had emerged to find it was past noon.

She had brought food with her, but Sassa had tasked her with being self-sufficient.

“This ain’t a vacation,” he had insisted.

“He tends to wander off and not show back up until a few days later,” Fuwa had explained.

He must train himself out in the wilderness like this, she concluded. That meant this was Sassa’s way of helping her.

She gathered up some larger branches and found a fallen tree she could use for firewood.

For training, she found a flat area she could use for kata training and a rocky area with some steep drop offs.

She might find some better places once she explored further, but she had the bare minimum she needed.

By the time she had set up a clapper and some spells to keep animals away and for security, it was nearly evening.

“Now, then.”

She gathered some water and started a fire for dinner and then she got to thinking.

…Those unwanted thoughts really have stopped.

“Testament,” said Fukushima.

It was only her second day out here, but she was already noticing a change in herself.

“I see.”

Kani was right.

She nodded a few more times while finishing her early dinner and washing the dishes. The smell of the food would attract animals, so she left the dishes and pot soak after washing them.

Once she started considering whether to keep or extinguish the fire, she noticed her surroundings had grown dark.

She hadn’t noticed the falling darkness while staring at the fire. She considered doing some night training, but she instead did some stretches and went to bed.

In the tent, she crawled into her sleeping bag, noted the waterfall wasn’t as loud tonight, thought about how busy she would be tomorrow, and shut her eyes.

She could not get to sleep.

She tried, but sleep would not come.