by Yuu Kamiya
“Ahh, now now, you don’t need to thank me. No need to kowtow in gratitude, either. After all, I consider hearing you all cry as you freeze to death the ultimate reward.”
—Insane. The voice that chirped away happily could no longer be described as anything else.
The authority to freely manipulate the temperature had fallen into the hands of this maniacal scoundrel. None could help but shudder at this terrifying truth.
“Oh shit! I forgot! I have to clearly and thoroughly prove that this isn’t a bluff or a prank!”
With an easygoing air as if they had merely forgotten to turn off the television, the mad voice continued on like a tour guide on a bus.
“Now then, everyone, pleeease take a look at Tokyo Tower through a nearby wiiindow.”
Everyone rushed to a nearby window and looked up.
Tokyo Tower.
It was a former radio tower made of steel and painted red and white. Since humans abandoned electricity, it had become a useless landmark. It was the symbol of Tokyo, so it had basically been treated as a historical ruin and preserved for over a thousand years.
And now...
The transformation only lasted an instant.
As everyone watched on, the red steel tower shimmering in the dark night froze and turned pure white for an instant. It happened as quickly as soaking a rose in liquid nitrogen and was just as ludicrous.
“Ahh———!!”
The next moment, the tower was crushed by its own weight, breaking into countless fragments and crumbling away, leaving nothing behind.
Everyone was left speechless as they looked up in a daze at the fragments of Tokyo Tower dancing downwards like falling leaves. Was what they just saw really reality? They saw it clearly before their very eyes, yet they still couldn’t wrap their heads around it. It was something that shouldn’t have been possible, a sight that was simply that unreal.
...But reality lay right in front of them. The steel tower that had stood for over a thousand years was no longer there. In just a few seconds, it had disappeared like a dream.
“Did you enjoy that? That’s the end of tonight’s show! Everyone, please keep warm so you don’t catch a cold. Have a good night! Thank you for your kind attention! See you again! Adios, amigos!!”
—Immediately after that broadcast of criminal proclamation, which had only lasted a mere ten minutes, ended...
Tokyo’s metropolitan area, which held a population of forty million people, turned into a crucible of hysteria, and in less than a few minutes, the city’s functions became completely paralyzed.
●
Atop the high-rise, Naoto let out a large sigh as he felt the fatigue from his high-energy talk. A voice called out to him from behind.
“—Yo, good work.”
Naoto turned around. It was Halter.
He was a big man with a buzz cut and could be described as a burly stalwart. The sight of him approaching with a jovial smile reminded Naoto of a large, carnivorous wildcat.
“With this, you’re now a splendid, superstar terrorist on the Interpol Watch List. Your name will be printed in high school textbooks. How do you feel?”
“Not bad,” Naoto replied with a faint smile at Halter’s banter.
Naoto felt neither fervor for having committed a peerless crime nor fear at having turned the whole world into his enemy. The only thing he felt was a sense of liberation at having completed one part of his job.
Just then, a dazzling light suddenly pierced his eyes.
“—Target confirmed. All units, begin descent. Your mission is to capture the target.”
Tracing the light to its source, Naoto saw three helicopters.
The armed helicopters were like black raptors, hovering silently in the air as their searchlights and autocannons focused on the two on the rooftop. Next, from each of the three helicopters, six bodies jumped down—eighteen silhouettes in total. The figures, the image of upright gorillas with their bulging arms and thick chests, landed onto the concrete surface of the rooftop one after another.
Halter groaned as he ran his hand along his buzz cut. “Assault-type automata in addition to three stealth helicopters. As expected for a superstar. Your fans are crowding forward to meet you after the show.”
“If they want my signature, they’re gonna have to line up nice and proper.”
One of the helicopter’s speakers blared at the two banterers.
“This is a warning! Raise your hands above your heads and lie face-down where you are! If you resist, we’ll shoot!”
As if to reinforce those words, the eighteen automata pointed their guns towards the two all at once in perfect synchrony.
The silent tension made sweat ooze out onto Halter’s forehead as he said, “Well, what are we gonna do now? This is embarrassing, but I didn’t take into account that the response would be this quick.”
“What are we gonna do, you ask... It’s already over. Ain’t that right?”
However, Naoto didn’t become flustered or try to stand up. He continued sitting cross-legged as if his butt was too heavy to move. He merely let out a shallow sigh. As for why—that was because the situation had already reached checkmate. There was nothing more they could do or should do. Naoto understood that.
“Right, RyuZU?”
“—Yes. The situation is already over.”
Immediately after...
The air creaked as the main rotors of the three armed helicopters were blown off. Caught in a tailspin, they crashed downwards, tracing a spiral in their path.
At the same time, the eighteen automata stopped moving. Their necks were torn off, their arms felled, and their legs severed—the automata, minced into pieces, clattered as they collapsed and exploded right where they stood faster than the blink of an eye.
As he shielded his face from the incoming shockwave and debris, Naoto saw her.
Since just when had...?
A beautiful young girl wearing an old-fashioned black dress was standing right before him. Her hair was fluttering in the stormy wind as she performed a curtsy, holding out her full, puffy skirt.
Her skin was so pale that it stood out against the dark night, her moist lips were a crimson red, and her eyes, made of golden gemstones, glittered as they reflected Naoto’s image.
As the shockwave subsided, she elegantly bowed to Naoto and said, “I apologize for having made you wait, Master Naoto. —By the way, you still haven’t praised me. I believe it is a master’s duty to promptly do so before being requested for it, am I wrong?”
Naoto smiled gently and nodded. “Thanks, you were a big help.”
“Is that all?”
“I’m glad you were here, RyuZU. You’re the best automaton for sure, RyuZU. If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t know what to do at all. As expected, Ms. RyuZU is seriously RyuZU-like.”
“...I see that your vocabulary is severely lacking. Such exceedingly base words carry not even a hint of good sense. They expose Master Naoto’s poor caliber and upbringing—but nothing can be done. I shall accept them begrudgingly.”
“So you do have a hidden soft side.”
The next moment, Naoto sank to the concrete ground. RyuZU had struck him.
While looking on, Halter asked, “By the way, miss. I believe that according to the plan, you were supposed to retrieve our princess. Where is she?”
“I left her behind.”
“You left her...?”
“Because the enemy raid came two minutes and thirty-seven seconds earlier than predicted, I advanced the plan forward a stage and prioritized Master Naoto’s safety. It would have been troublesome to save him if he were captured, after all.”
“I appreciate that, but how about the princess?”
“There is no problem,” RyuZU answered, then took a step back. Simultaneously, heavy gunshots sounded, and bullets pierced the spot where she had been just a moment before.
As for who the shooter was—a young Caucasian girl was standing by the rooftop’s
emergency staircase.
She was Marie Bell Breguet.
“...That’s dangerous, princess.”
“Halter,” the girl called out to the man, who had broken out in a cold sweat as she quickly closed in on him.
At first glance, she appeared to be smiling sweetly. If she were walking down the street, many a man’s eyes would surely have lit up when they caught sight of her. Her face was dainty, her nose tall and pointed, and her softly swaying blond hair balanced out her haughty aura just right.
But her emerald-green eyes were burning with rage.
“Please restrain that piece of junk. Today’s the day I’ll dismantle her and fix that rotten personality for good.”
Halter shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “Don’t ask for the impossible, princess. Just what do you expect me to do?”
“When do you plan to capitalize on your career experience if not now? Please use the Marine Corps’, uhh, hand-to-hand combat techniques to seize that piece of junk. I don’t mind if you break her in the process, okay?”
“I was in the Army, not the Marine Corps. What’s this commotion all about?”
Without answering him, Marie swung the pistol-sized mechanical bayonet—Coil Spear—that she held in her right hand one time, causing it to transform into its blade mode.
“This shitty piece of junk deserted me and ran away by herself! Despite the fact that I was surrounded by security automata!” she yelled out gruffly right before she slashed at RyuZU.
The swing was sharp and carried the momentum of Marie’s upper body; however, RyuZU evaded it with just a light step.
“Oh my, the plating is peeling off, you know.”
“Shut it!”
“Mistress Marie, you are always calling yourself a multi-faceted prodigy, so there is no way you would have any difficulty with a small threat like ten or twenty generic security automata, right?”
“How could that possibly be true?! I thought I was going to die!”
“What—” RyuZU opened her eyes wide in astonishment. “...I apologize. I thought my opinion of you was already as low as could be, but to think that you are such a complete wimp... You have my sincerest apologies.”
“...I’m gonna destroy you! I’m definitely, seriously gonna destroy you...!”
“Be quiet—” Naoto muttered, cutting off Marie, who was trying to transform her Coil Spear even further to extend its blade. He was kneeling with his head against the concrete ground.
When he spoke, the three ended their farce abruptly and turned their eyes towards Naoto in silence.
He continued as he pressed one ear snugly against the ground. “As expected, they’re heading towards the ‘Actuator.’”
Naoto strained his ears with all he had. Far in the distance... underground footsteps sounded 5,387 meters away.
He heard all of them without missing a single one.
“There are 3,021 automata and 1,765 soldiers on foot.”
“...It should be safe to assume that that’s practically all of the garrisoned forces that could immediately be mobilized.”
While rubbing his head, Halter laughed as if to say, What an opportunity.
Marie retracted her Coil Spear. “They should know where we are, too.”
“There are seven sources of sound heading straight toward us—they’re not stealth helicopters this time. They aren’t loaded with automata, even. They’re authentic assault helicopters.”
“Out of the heavily armed helicopters that Japan owns, the ones that could be mobilized right now... they’re PTK-A74s.” Marie deduced.
To which RyuZU inquired, “How much of a threat are they?”
“They’re heavily armed, unpiloted, autonomous fighters. They’re equipped with two resonance cannons... Well, with seven of them, they can scorch this entire grid without needing to resupply.”
“Alright, let’s get the hell outta here. Hey Naoto, how much time do we have?” Halter asked. Naoto quickly got up.
“About 372 seconds until they arrive—it should be something like that.”
“Well then, let us withdraw before we come into contact with them. I shall carry the luggage.” RyuZU piled up the pieces of Naoto’s equipment and lifted them up easily.
Naoto Miura, age sixteen, male, Japanese.
He was just another high schooler—however, this boy, who had now magnificently become the most heinous terrorist in all of history, had a special power. That special power was...
Naoto unplugged the unneeded lines from his favorite pair of headphones, then put them back on his head. After that, he turned on the noise-canceling function.
...Ahh. He let out a large sigh. ...It’s finally quiet.
Seeing Naoto like that, Marie asked quietly, “Hey Naoto, are you okay?”
“...Well, yeah, somehow.”
“That ability is a burden on your body after all, isn’t it...”
“Nah, that’s not it. I messed up... Sorry,” Naoto replied as he turned around and stuck his thumb up with a snap.
“You see, it seems there’s a sex parlor in that building over there.”
“...............Hah?”
“With the beds creaking and the people moaning constantly, they couldn’t be more of a clueless nuisance if they tri—”
Before Naoto could finish, Marie uppercut his chin, her face flushed.
A special power.
That was “Extraordinary Hearing.”
Whether it be the things happening in a different building, a battalion of automata and soldiers marching underground five kilometers away, or even trillions of nanogears clicking against each other, he could clearly hear and differentiate all of them.
In this world where everything was made of clockwork, that was simply too—
Halter called out to Marie, who was stomping on the back of Naoto’s head in silent anger. “Oi, cut it out, princess. That brain shoulders the future of the world.”
“The world must have gone mad, then.”
“...Aren’t you being completely unreasonable...?” Naoto groaned underneath Marie’s feet.
Halter let out a sigh, “Hurry up, now. It isn’t the time to be doing a comedy skit.”
“...R-Rest assured, Halter—” Naoto uttered as he stood up while teeter-tottering. He adjusted his headphones, which had slipped off his ears, and brushed off the dust that had gotten stuck to his clothes. “If we’re all together, something as minor as a metropolis of forty million people is as good as putty in our palms.”
“...Hopefully, you’re right,” Halter said, rubbing his head. Contrary to the impression people got from his buff physique, he was a worrywart of a middle-aged man.
●
The four of them ran down the building’s emergency staircase and stepped outside. Passing the three helicopters that had crashed and were now in flames, they headed towards the roundabout in front of the station.
A giant display that hung on the outside of the station building was playing an emergency news broadcast, reporting in-depth on this unprecedented act of terrorism.
A high school failure, Naoto Miura.
The prodigy clocksmith, Marie Bell Breguet.
Her ex-soldier bodyguard, Vainney Halter.
And lastly—the mysterious automaton, RyuZU.
They differed in nationality. They differed in age as well. One of them wasn’t even human.
How did this group—whose members had almost nothing in common—cross paths with each other? Why did they end up becoming the most heinous terrorists in all of history?
Their secret motives.
A wild ideal and a noble lust.
The hidden mystery of the world that kept the gears turning perpetually.
That’s right, the beginning of all this goes back one month ago—
Chapter One / 00 : 30 / Coincidence
Naoto Miura was only interested in machines.
He was a hardcore machine maniac—no, a machine nerd—er, a machine junkie. He’d liked gears, cylinde
rs, screws, springs, and wires since childhood. He had loved the luster of metal and the feel of ceramics as well. Tick tock, tick tock—whenever he heard the sound of a clock marking the passage of time, he would calm down. Whenever he watched the pins of a music box pluck the metal comb, his heart would tremble with excitement. That didn’t change even as he advanced into middle school.
No; rather, one could say it got worse.
Naoto didn’t pay any attention to manga, anime, or games. Even while his classmates clamored over photos of pinup girls, he’d intently continue fiddling with machinery. Instead of the squabbling over whether huge or tiny breasts were better, he was more interested in the different methods of powering an automobile. Instead of the swimsuit-clad figures of the girls in his class, he was more interested in the contours of machines used for manufacturing. Rather than the adult videos that his classmates lent out and borrowed from each other, he was more interested in a documentary on the development of a new model of springs.
Being so out of sync with the rest of his peers, even Naoto was able to notice it.
—I see, it seems that I’m “abnormal” somehow.
He wouldn’t have had such a hard time if he could change the nature he was born with just by becoming aware of it.
As the saying goes, “The child is father of the man,” and so Naoto Miura grew up as himself. By that point, his love for machines had become immeasurable and warped his personality so much that it could no longer be corrected through any amount of effort.
It was already too late for Naoto Miura.
●
35° N, 135° E.
Underground Floor 1, Kyoto Grid, Japan.
Once called the Thousand-Year Capital, Kyoto was one of the few great metropolises of Japan. Surrounded by a completely mechanized cityscape, somewhat out-of-place wooden buildings that had been deemed a World Heritage Site lined the streets of a certain district—the one where Naoto Miura lived.
