Volume 1, 1: Past and Wolf

Are differences

Something you create

Or something created for you?

Point Allocation (Self-Destruction)



An enormous ship traveled through the spring sky.

The sky was a deep blue that April afternoon. The clouds were stretched and torn by the wind and the season aboard Aerial City Ship Musashi was at the point where the cherry trees were finally budding.

That ship maintained an altitude between 3 and 10 kilometers above ground. The onboard temperature was never as cold as the surrounding air, but it still tended to take a southward course at the start of spring, so the onboard temperature would grow warmer at that time. So…

“We were stopped up north by snow this year and we spent a long time in stealth cruising due to the rebellion in Ming, so it looks like the cherry trees will be late to bloom. We tried to keep the stealth off whenever possible, but the Musashi will probably still have a lingering winter chill.”

“Yes, our shrine’s cherry trees should have bloomed by now too. Musashi’s buffering spell and atmospheric adjustments have warmed the temperature to early spring levels, but the plants still operate on their natural rhythm.”

Those voices could be heard in a classroom of the middle school in Musashino’s surface city.

However, this was not a large school building and schoolyard built into an entire level of the ship. It was made from a modified longhouse located alongside the high school dorms and the student corporate guild building in the area known as the student district.

The building had classrooms for each school year lined up alongside the atrium park that pierced vertical down into Musashino.

Outside the windows were a terrace and a stairway leading down to the park.

At this time of day, the green of the park shined bright in the sun.

The voices had come from one of the dimly-lit classrooms in the long, narrow school building.

“How about we step outside, Mito? They have a snack stand set up in the park down there.”

“No, I am fine, Asama. I am waiting for my king.”

“In that case,” said Asama, the black-haired girl leaning onto the windowsill, while looking away from Mitotsudaira, the silver-haired girl seated nearby.