by Yuu Kamiya
Naoto peered intently at the diagram, but alas, he shook his head.
“Sorry, this is too difficult for me to read. I’ll tell you where they are verbally, so look for them in my place.”
“Got it, leave it to me.” Marie nodded.
All of the staff present had been watching the two’s exchange as if it were something terrifying.
The observation chief asked Marie timidly, “...Dr. Marie, are you really serious? You’re going to act based on the ramblings of a boy who just said he can’t even read the layout of the floor?”
“That’s right.”
Exasperated, Hannes yelled, “Dr. Marie! For you of all people to tag along on a nasty prank of a child like this, what are you doing?”
Marie turned around and said, “I know that it’s unbelievable. But at present, we have no other means. If we have no other way regardless, then I want to bet on a miracle.”
“Dr. Marie!!” the observation chief screamed. He seriously thought that this girl, who had always been wise and composed, had snapped. Even while wavering, he continued to be driven by a sense of duty to somehow make Marie come to her senses and quickly evacuate—however—
“—43,985,047,245,908—that’s the precise number of parts.”
Naoto’s words turned that sense of duty of his into a shivering chill.
The corridor fell silent. Even Marie and Halter, who had already known about Naoto’s ability beforehand, got goosebumps.
His tone was such that one couldn’t think he was simply spewing out a random number. He declared it as if he had actually counted—no, as if he were simply reading it aloud from a spec sheet. He had declared it dispassionately, as if he were simply stating an obvious and unmistakable fact—such was his tone.
“There are 4,047 parts behaving irregularly among those. However, of those, 4,029 parts have no immediate relevance to the current situation—so in other words, there are eighteen spots. If those are repaired, the gravitational anomaly will end.”
—Just what is with this kid?
The veteran staff of Meister Guild were left speechless.
Even the service chief and the observation chief were simply dumbfounded.
Even though they could understand the simple words Naoto was saying, it appeared that their brains were refusing to acknowledge what that statement implied. There should have been no one who knew the structure of a core tower.
The total number of parts here was something that even the military, who had maintained the core tower for hundreds of years, shouldn’t know, much less how each of the components related to one another—an epic feat like that would normally take several hundreds of average clocksmiths observing and analyzing the structure of this floor for several months.
Even they, who held pride in being the best clocksmiths in the world, would need two weeks, and that’s if they came into the job completely prepared and worked themselves to the bone.
No matter how they struggled—it would have taken at least that long.
Yet, here was a boy who had announced what would have been the result of all that work after he had simply sat down for around just ten minutes.
...There was no way that could be true.
It should have been just random bullshit, but—the scary thing was, it didn’t sound that way at all.
It was almost as if they had heard the physical laws of another universe or encountered an incomprehensible extraterrestrial lifeform.
It was an abnormal, bizarre, strange, peculiar, outrageous, exceptional, inexplicable, and irrational—truth.
Someone gulped.
What was the emotion that they felt at that moment?
At the very least, they were looking at Naoto with a gaze that was neither respectful nor scornful.
If one had to say...
“—Did you not say that there is little time?” RyuZU spoke up in a freezing-cold voice that destroyed this atmosphere in which time seemed to have stopped.
She glared at each of the staff members one by one. They trembled with a start upon her gaze, and she whispered sharply, “You are free to remain stuck in a daze, but to do nothing but shiver in a situation like this where even the help of a cat would be welcome... Should I take that to mean that your skills are less than that of a cat?”
That rebuke caused heat to return to the staff members’ eyes. They blazed upon having their pride injured, the pride that came from being referred to as “first-rate” and having done jobs worthy of that title.
The service chief sighed grandly as if he were resigned. “...I suppose. It’s true that we don’t have any other methods. If Dr. Marie insists this much, then I suppose I’ll try putting my faith in this kid, considering that it doesn’t seem like he’s completely fabricating things, either.”
“But service chief...!” the observation chief groaned. He objected even now, but unable to find words to continue with, fell silent.
Because he knew just how difficult the task of observation was from his job, it was more difficult for him than anyone else to accept the reality in front of him—but he lost to the service chief’s chiding gaze and Marie’s spirited, emerald eyes.
As if enduring something difficult, he ground his molars just a bit before nodding. “...I understand. Let’s do this.”
The service chief tapped Hannes’s shoulder gently as he turned around and said, “—Now then, could we have your instructions, Dr. Marie?”
●
After getting Naoto to describe where the eighteen spots were in as much detail as possible, Marie picked out the ones that matched Naoto’s description from the list of the projected points of malfunction and made marks on the diagram of the floor.
She assigned each of the spots to different staff members according to their individual technical ability.
After the impromptu assignments and instructions were given, all that was left was the same familiar work as usual.
Each staff member took their own equipment and went off to the location to which they were assigned.
Marie sighed as she saw them off.
—There’s nothing to worry about now. They’ll surely do their jobs right.
“Now then, all that’s left is this right here... RyuZU! Come here,” Marie shouted loudly.
RyuZU walked to where she was as asked and looked down at Marie with an astringent face.
“What is it? Just so you know, Mistress Marie, I do not appreciate being casually summoned by someone as measly as you.”
“There’s just one spot that would be difficult for a human to easily access.” Marie continued, ignoring RyuZU’s venom. She had begun to learn how to handle the automaton in the short amount of time she’d known her. “Normally I would use a repair bot, but I’m leaving it to you. Move exactly as I say down to the millimeter, alright?”
“The only one who can order me to do something is—”
“RyuZU, listen to her,” Naoto said.
RyuZU scowled as if she found it disagreeable down to her very core, but nodded begrudgingly in the end.
“......I understand. Feel free to direct me.”
After taking a glance at the diagram, Marie looked at the gauge in her right hand as she quickly did some calculations in her head. She turned to face RyuZU and gave her instructions based on the result from her calculations.
“Turn 91.2 degrees to the left from your current position, then look up 47.5 degrees horizontally, then jump 22.3 meters in that direction; there, turn your body 180 degrees, then look down 75 degrees, then jump 14.25 meters in that direction and land vertically. From there, move 57 centimeters to the right. Find the thirty-third shaft from the right, then locate the seventeenth gear that’s turning it, then look down and right from it 67 degrees. Stick this screwdriver inside the 0.2-millimeter gap that’s there. Inside, there’s a gear 0.7 microns in diameter with a bent tooth. Straighten it without letting the gear stop turning.”
——At this point, it would be more accurate to call it supe
r-precise input commands than instructions.
RyuZU sighed when she finishing receiving the instructions Marie had reeled off in one breath.
“Understood.”
She bowed; the next moment, she had already turned her head and jumped.
Naoto’s eyes widened as they followed RyuZU’s shadow slipping into the group of gears forming the left wall.
Marie stood up while folding the diagram. “Now then, we’re going too. There’re three spots that are difficult to specify orally, so we have to go confirm their locations ourselves. Halter, you come with me while holding onto Naoto.”
“Yes, yes. Well then, you’ll have to excuse me.”
As ordered, Halter reached out with his burly arms, grabbed Naoto, and put him under his arm.
Having been lifted up like luggage, Naoto groaned sadly. “I’m totally being treated as equipment, huh...”
Marie had begun to charge towards where the three spots were. While chasing after her, Halter laughed. “What else can we do? You’re simply too weak. If you’re aspiring to be a clocksmith, then gain some endurance. The job is a physically challenging one where two, three consecutive overnighters are common.”
“Gehh...” Naoto groaned before sighing; however, he wasn’t confident in the slightest that he would be able to keep up with this blistering pace if he were to run on his own feet. He resigned himself to being baggage.
“Then again,” Halter continued, “if we have your power, then that might not be the case in the future.”
“Am I really doing something that significant...?” Naoto mumbled doubtfully.
To which Halter asserted emphatically, “You are. Rather, you’re so handy it’s almost scary. The observation chief was trembling pitifully, you know? He was wondering just what all the work he had done up to now was for.”
“—There’s no need to feel dejected over seeing the perverse ability of a pervert like this,” whispered Marie coldly. She had caught up before Naoto had realized it.
Halter slapped his own head. “...Princess. Though he leaves much to be desired, he’s still the messiah that saved us from a huge crisis and absolute despair. You shouldn’t call him a pervert.”
“If someone who can discover all malfunctions in a three-kilometer radius just by sitting silently for ten minutes isn’t a pervert, then who is?”
“...Meh, I’m used to being called a pervert, so whatever, but—hold up,” Naoto said.
Marie and Halter stopped abruptly in their tracks.
Still being held, Naoto turned his head. “—It’s that gear over there. The fourth one from the right.”
He pointed downwards with his finger.
Marie bent forward past the walkway’s guardrail and confirmed it.
There was a group of gears that moved up and down as they turned. The parts that were moving like a piston were all the same shape. Among them, just the fourth one from the right was half a second late. “—Got it. It’s that one, right?”
Naoto nodded in return, but his eyebrows were furrowed.
The faulty part was suspended in the air twenty meters directly beneath them. There was nowhere to stand, and because other mechanisms were in the way as well, descending on a rope wouldn’t work, either.
He turned to face Marie, asking, “What should we do? Go back and fetch a repair bot?”
“You’re joking. We don’t have that kind of time.” Marie answered succinctly as she tossed off her coat.
She continued to climb over the railing before jumping off with nothing but her clothes, falling towards the group of gears as they continued to turn.
“Hey—!” Naoto yelled out in a panic.
“Relax, there’s no need to worry.” Halter laughed as he gently pulled Naoto back by his shoulder. “Watch carefully. These are the techniques of the number-one Meister of our time.”
—And then, Naoto witnessed a miracle.
Marie landed silently on a shaft, then crouched down and jumped once again. Screws, cylinders, wires, springs, and gears were operating in complex manners. She slipped through all of that with movements as nimble as a cat’s as she approached the malfunctioning gear.
She moved at a terrifyingly quick speed and without stopping for even a single moment. The group of gears in operation were strong, heavy, and sharp enough to easily tear a human body to pieces should they come into contact with one, yet the girl flew past them without any hesitation whatsoever.
Lastly, Marie kicked off from a rotating cylinder before hooking her feet onto a single, thin grate.
As she swung into an upside-down position from her momentum, the fourth gear just happened to be passing in front of her. The slender, pale legs extending from her shorts were awfully dazzling.
However—perhaps she had gained too much momentum, as tools were falling right out of the belt wound around one of her thighs. At least, that’s how it looked to Naoto.
However, those tools didn’t fall. Marie would grab one, use it, and then toss it up. She was repeating this.
The tools danced through the air just like juggling balls, revolving around a fixed point in front of her.
Screws, wires, and gears traced an ellipse in front of Marie as they danced in the air like gravity didn’t exist, then fell back down into her hands. She was moving so fast that her hands were forming afterimages. While upside-down, no less.
It was terrifyingly quick work. A superhuman feat. Naoto shivered and forgot to breathe as he was mesmerized by the sight in front of him.
He gasped, muttering, “Ama...zing... So that’s a Meister...!”
Halter smiled wryly. “Don’t try to mimic her. Even a Meister would normally use a repair bot here or assemble a scaffold to work from before starting the repair.”
“...Then what’s up with that?” Naoto asked, purring.
To which Halter answered, “Though her ability may be different from yours, the princess is a fine genius in her own right. Her title ‘youngest Meister in the world’ isn’t just for show.”
“...I can’t get enough of this,” Naoto moaned.
It was the peak.
The zenith.
Sure, her divine technique was a beauty to behold; that much was a given. But even moreso, what about the elegant tone of the symphony being conducted by her hands? It was music Naoto had never heard before.
Naoto had always found sounds made by humans to be unpleasant; they were nothing but uneven and irregular. Yet, in the composition titled “Marie” being performed in front of him at this very moment, everything, from her pulse to her breathing and even the squeaking between her bones and muscles, was in perfect harmony.
“Hahah... ahahahah!” He couldn’t resist laughing.
A splitting sense of excitement boiled up inside his chest.
One day—
Will I be able to make such sounds?
Marie’s work had ended in what seemed like less than a minute. However, to Naoto, who thoroughly etched all of it into his eyes and ears, it felt like it had lasted several tens, no, hundreds of times longer.
She returned the dancing tools to her belt like a sleight of hand. The magician herself had on a nonchalant face as she climbed back up without making any noise and as smoothly and swiftly as she had descended.
Marie flipped herself over the rails like a circus performer before landing back on the walkway, and then she glared. “What are you spacing out for? We’re moving on to the next spot immediately!”
She broke into a squall-like charge again.
Breaking into a dash himself as he chased after her, Halter gave Naoto a wink.
“—What’d I say? She’s the best, right?”
●
Three hours later...
The staff, who had gathered back in the central corridor after finishing their jobs, were gulping as they listened to the observation chief read out the values of various parameters from their gauges.
“......and Brownian motion, normal value. Items to confirm—All clea
r.”
“Then, this means that...” Marie muttered, her voice tense.
The observation chief slowly raised his face up away from the gauges as the staff present all watched him. His expression was a strange, distorted one. Big teardrops had welled up at the corners of his eyes and were spilling over.
“The repair... is a success. I can’t believe it...!” he reported with a shrill yell.
The staff looked at each other, their exhausted, sullied faces saying, Is it really over? Did we really do it? Can we celebrate now?
However, little by little, cheers began to erupt from among them... before exploding.
“““Yahoo————————————!!”””
The space was filled with loud cheering. With complete disregard of their age, tears wet their wrinkled, stoic faces. The elderly veterans yelled, their merry voices echoing throughout the corridor.
“You’re kidding me! Can you believe it?! We actually did it!”
“Hahahahaha! Dammit, I better not be dreaming!”
“Dear God...! I’ll be going to church when I get back! I’ll dump all the cash I have on me onto the donation plate!”
While some were hammering the floor with their fists and others were rolling about on the ground, a certain someone left the crowd.
It was an old man with a splendid goatee—Service Chief Konrad.
He came in front of the automaton leaning against the wall some distance from the commotion and the boy—Naoto—sitting next to her.
“Can I have a word?” he asked in a rich, gentle voice.
“—Eh? Ah... ahh, yes.”
“Thanks,” he stated his gratitude concisely, then sat down himself.
Naoto looked a little tense. The service chief turned a tender gaze towards him before slowly lowering his head. “We were saved because of you today. My name is Konrad. What’s your name?”
“Ah... It’s Naoto. Naoto Miura.”
“I see.” The service chief nodded. He then straightened his posture and bowed once again, formally this time. “Mr. Naoto Miura. I deeply apologize for my colleagues saying disrespectful things earlier. Because of you, our lives, Dr. Marie’s life, and above all, the lives of the twenty million residents of this city were saved. Thank you so much. I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart.”
