by Kamiya Yuu
Reality was not as nice as imaginations. Houko knew that well.
No, she assumed that she knew–
–However, Houko did not know.
That in another 10 minutes, or to be precise, 8 minutes and 52 seconds.
Leaving Houko aside, the world would have to realize that such understanding was merely a blissful imagination.
The reality that they were still standing on that imagination.
In other words–The reality was always overriding their imaginations.
At the same time, on the outside.
There was a tense atmosphere filling Grid Sakuradamon.
Soon after, it would be the premeditated ‘forceful assault’.
The passion for a revolution, the agitation before a battle–and the moral dilemma for the savagery they were about to commit.
The heavy atmosphere descended upon the army surrounding the palace, and an interviewing helicopter was peering from afar.
Bitterness–an atmosphere almost everyone present felt.
“Phew…finally, some air after 48 hours, how refreshing. No, even I do not have anything like a respiratory installation. I must say though that despite my vision being filled with such foolish peasants unable to graduate from their mindsets inferior to fleas for thousands of years, this sense of pleasure is valid.”
Closing in from behind–was ‘reality’.
It was a small group of people. Walking right in front was a girl in a black dress and silver hair.
Her footsteps were fast and fleeting, seeming giving off the delight of an elegant dance at any given moment.
Coming out from those fresh blooming lips was a refreshing voice of a silver bell.
The topaz eyes were glittering, and that Automata showcased the sharp verbal jabs that were not heard for a while.
Tailing behind her is a black-haired boy and blond girl, walking at strolling pace.
Right behind them was a young girl in red and white armor..
They casually passed through the center of the road, brazenly moving forward.
The black dress girl walked as she turned to look behind–showing a smile to the boy, a smile even an angel would be smitten with, saying,
“Master Naoto–? Even if I am merely a servant of clockwork, I should have the privilege and restraint to choose who I should be serving. My head is not so wretched to bow down to a simpleton of a single-cell microbe, so please understand my displeasure.”
“Well, yeah, I know, but this is–”
One had to wonder how many times had they repeated this conversation, and the black haired boy nodded lethargically.
However, the girl looked displeased as she continued,
“I understand, Master Naoto. You wish for me to have a clear distinction from a beast who knows nothing of the word ‘etiquette’, and I shall respect your vulgar logic and obey accordingly. I shall repeat however–that I am truly unwilling.”
The boy could hear a voice that was practically hidden in the laughter of flowers, and gave a wry smile as he answered.
“Got it. We need to go all out with this, so just bear with it–I got a reward for you.”
“–I am an object of yours, Master Naoto. To be served with a reward…please do understand your own position.”
Contrary to her words however–only the boy was able to see–the delight from the black dress girl, and then–
“AnchoR…you ready?”
“…Yes. It’s your order, papa–no, a request, so.”
The red and white girl had her head patted by the boy, and nodded.
Finally, the blond girl gave a despondent, wry smile.
“Don’t you guys know what being nervous is…? Will it go well here?”
But contrary to her words, there was no sense of uneasiness to be felt from her words.
It seemed both the boy and the black dress girl understood this, and they beamed, saying,
“Well, Marie, there’s no way RyuZU and AnchoR will fail.”
“Master Marie, are you bored enough to actually ask such a rhetoric? Or is it that your brain of a simpleton is faulty? If Master Naoto says that he can do it, even a problem too great for God will have to back then–of course, this will depend on a certain Miss not committing a blunder and pulling him down.”
“…Well, whatever, I’m not gonna argue with that. Even your spiteful words sound so reliable now.”
And–the blond girl said,
“The enemy’s the one you should be dicing.”
Right in front of them was a barricade formed by miniature automatic weapons and vehicles.
–And in the face of the military perimeter surrounding the ‘capital’, the boy listened keenly, muttering,
“Multi-pedal heavy armor tanks, 18 units, 32 armored soldiers, light and heavy automata…I’m kinda lazy to sort them out, but there’s 68 of them. Including those passengers, there’s 98 soldiers with military prosthetics–”
The boy callously affirmed the number of forces surrounding the place, asking,
“Marie–if we’re going to wipe them out–suppress them with the strongest forces in the world, how long will it take?”
“And not cause any damage to the ‘Palace’? It’s impossible to approach it now, but let me think…”
The blond girl lowered her head to ponder.
The girl was a technician, neither a mercenary or a soldier. Thus, with her personality of a technician, she started estimating based on the capabilities–
“Assuming the many generations of armaments developed by the Breguets, the light armor automata and prosthetics given to a military force experienced in street warfare and suppression, if we send 4 of them and use them to their limit, it’ll take a minimum of 14 minutes.”
Upon hearing this answer that was based on some unbelievable premise, the boy immediately boasted,
“Now then, RyuZU, AnchoR, the time limit will be “7 Minutes”. That should be more than enough, right?”
“…Destroy them, all? I want an order…can I hold back…?”
“Yeah, hold back as much as you want. Don’t kill anyone. That’s absolute.”
–If anyone else was to hear this conversation, what would they think?
Would they laugh it off? Berate them? Any way–
“Anyway, RyuZU, AnchoR–as we planned, do your best to attract their attention. I’ll leave it to you.”
“Understood…now then, if you excuse me.”
–Speaking of which.
This year, there had been a lot of events happening in Japan that never happened before, starting with the failed purge of Kyoto.
The Akihabara Terrorism Announcement, the Akihabara Magnetized Crisis, the Kasumigaseki Meeting, the request to use the ‘Tall Wand’, the Tokyo uprising, the February 9th uprising, the skirmish at Sakuradamon–
Such incidents might be caused by some mastermind steering, plotting, lots of conspiracies…
–Seemingly mocking this.
It was a theater-like crime that would be summarized as everything was committed by a mere terrorist cell.
The final incident that would conclude and be deemed as a common name.
And the first incident–of a series of incidents that would shock the world.
This incident would later be recorded in history as the ‘February 8 Uprising’, or ‘Second Upsilon’.
On this year, this day, this moment, this instance.
Clockwork Year 1016, February 10th, Japan Standard Time, 5.59am in the morning–
A tower was suddenly sliced, and crumbled like a puzzle, attracting the starts of the surrounding people.
And in the sounds of the rumbling collapse, a voice akin to the music box spoke, echoing clearly,
“–Attention please♪”
A black dress girl bowed elegantly in front of the collapsing tower.
And a young red and white girl in armor bashfully mimicked the girl’s actions, bowing.
“Hello, . My name is the first of
the Initial-Y series, ‘YourSlave’ RyuZU.”
“E-erm…I’m the fourth unit of the Initial-Y series ‘Trishula’ AnchoR…ni-nice to meet you.”
–This incident started off with the greeting of two automata (legends).
“Currently, I am observing a group of arrogant, pitiful, tragic microbes hurried around by some crude plotting, so listen, it should have been a ridiculous, delightful event–but due to my Master’s orders, and due to some personal matter that happened to me–if I have to be honest, what I will do next is simply carnage.”
“E-erm…please allow me to apologize first…I’m sorry…!”
The black dress girl showed an angelic smile, reaching out two black scythes from deep within her skirt.
And the young red and white girl regretfully drew out massive swords from the solid gears that appeared out of nowhere.
Anyone who heard their introductions–would have doubted their understandings.
However, the black dress girl appeared not to be concerned with such understanding and doubt, maintaining her smile–
“I do not find this impudent, and I am truly unwilling to etch this on those regrettably pitiful, incapable minds, but I do wish that all those who had the fortune of hearing our names and our voices–”
She paused,
“Will taste this along with the dust, and kneel down to exalt us♪”
“So-sorry….!”
–And then, anyone who heard such words were not even allowed to know who they were, let alone resist.
Even if the armored units were to fire off one shut, they would be haplessly crushed and groveled, powerless again this irrationality.
–This day proved the existence of the newest legends, overriding that of the old legends.
Those living on this ‘Clockwork Planet’ had to recall.
Think of where they were standing.
And that was–the so-called reality was always trampling, overriding their imaginations, moving forward.
There was no ‘truth’ in history’, only ‘explanations’…or so someone said.
In any case, this applied even for witnesses to historic events. For example–
Captain Sumitada Hikoshima of the Tokyo ‘military’ Central Intelligence Branch, 28 years old.
He was a young commander, the fastest to rise to this rank.
And the Central Intelligence Branch he belonged to was in charge of dealing with ‘military’ mission information, to assist the other squads in strategy.
This time, the ‘Akihabara Terrorist Incident’ occurred, and an unknown massive weapon appeared,
“–This is a farce, a farce, a farce! Because of this incident, that Okada…!”
Hikoshima angrily slammed his fist onto the table, shaking the simple, cramped commander tent.
His furious uproar too caused the other officers, present at this tent, to gasp.
Lieutenant Okada was his friend, of the same year, part of the Capital Defense Force. He went out to take on the massive weapon…and died in battle.
The command system was erratic, reports conflicting, and Captain Hikoshima, an upstart amongst the younger generation, was driven by the motivation to take revenge for his friend–and then…he learned of the ‘military’ secret.
30 years ago, Grid Shiga was purged; the government discreetly agreed to the research on electromagnetic technology. At this moment, they were trying to manipulate this incident into causing this incident.
–In other words, my friend was killed by the politicians…!
He felt that it was unforgivable, that he should not leave this to the higher ups.
The higher ups were still embroiled in their internal strife, pushing the blame onto each other–he could no longer hope in the higher ups of the ‘military’ anymore, and immediately contacted his peers, whom he could trust.
The young commanders, his peers, were all upstarts as well, and they were friends who had an oath of sake to devote their utmost for this country.
Captain Hikoshima’s fury of justice was burning like fire, stoking the flames in the other officers.
And as a result, there was a rebellion–no, a ‘coup d’etat’.
At first, he was supposed to wait on the response of the Princess as a symbol of their power, and it was disappointing–but his allies did advice it was inevitable that a person like her would have conservative ideas.
Captain Hikoshima also understood very well that seizing political power through military force–was in no way a right thing to be done. He was not justice.
–But with the country in a crisis, the situation was critical. Sometimes, he would have to do things even if it meant subverting justice. Why would she not understand…
As he thought about the real intent of that weapon–and the higher ups simply wasting their time, it was no different from slow suicide. There was a need to collate all authority and fighting strength.
But…why attack the ‘Palace’?
This is too ridiculous–Captain Hikoshima thought, and shook his head.
(Even if I have to pull all the stops, the end makes up for the means! …But, that’s–)
It was simply some futile internal strife. In fact, they had no time and ability to divert so much military force on such a thing. They had to settle this quickly.
The moment of the assault was approaching, and right when Captain Hikoshima was about to shout–at that moment…
An explosion rang.
It was not the only one, for several echoed thereafter.
“What’s going on!? Which idiot started off first–!?”
Those anxious forces started attacking now Having determined this, Captain Hikoshima clicked his tongue.
–This is bad. Even with a premediated declaration, there would be problems in the future if someone started an attack before the command was given.
No, there’s already a huge problem already when some fool started attacking.
“The 7th squad got wiped out! It looks like they were assaulted by the enemy from behind!”
“…What, did you say?”
However, the report from the intel soldier caused the Captain to widen his eyes..
“The automatic cannons on the right wing were destroyed!”
“We lost contact with the second armor forces! 3rd and 4th–no response either!”
“–Impossible. Who are the enemies! Which forces are attacking now!?”
The Captain growled at the communications officer, pondering,
The military higher-ups? Those incompetent fellows were playing kemari with each other, pushing responsibility around.
The mobile police? Impossible. They were already lacking in ability to maintain order, and did not have such capabilities.
The public special forces? Impossible. Their numbers were insufficient in dealing with a ‘military’ force of such scale.
In that case–were they the ‘Palace Guards’? Captain Hikoshima clicked his tongue.
The Palace Guards were the military technicians in charge of managing the ‘Heaven’s Pillar’, and typically, their fighting strength was apparently low.
However, they were the forces in charge of defending the ‘Heaven’s Pillar’–Did we underestimate them?
Maybe they’re using the ‘Heaven’s Pillar’–the Palace, some secret passage underground or something to attack.
Do we finish this quick and easy, and attack from the front while the forces are split?
It’s different from what we planned, but if we can minimize the damage to the palace as much as we can–
“Report on the enemy forces!”
The commander turned to shout, but–
“–Why, how daring of you to actually command me, Mister. It is your free will to not treasure your life, but I do advise you to repent if you assume you have authority over me and annoy me–”
Answering him was a girl’s clear voice–followed by silence.
The crew was sprawled all over the tables, and the
massive equipment that were in operation just a while ago was reduced to scrap.
What–when did this happen?
The canvas was sliced and flapping in the wind; one could see the scenery outside.
The Captain’s swimming eyes saw the quad-pedal tanks ‘Komainu’ installed right behind the simple commander tent–severed into oblivion.
Standing on that debris was a girl in black dress.
The girl poked two scythes from beneath her skirt, smiling leisurely.
…
“……Huh?”
Captain Hikoshima’s eyes lost all luster as he blurted out in skepticism.
–It was as though there was a demonstration of something really inexplicable.
“Woah…well, I guess you’re the commander here?”
Captain Hikoshima turned around, and saw a blond girl, seemingly passing by, peek into the tent.
“I understand your feelings though…just think of it as being caught in some natural disaster, okay? Sorry about that.”
The girl seemed to completely empathize with him, and she closed an eye, drawing a cross before her chest.
At this moment, Captain Hikoshima finally gathered all his courage to ask of the intruders’ identities with a trembling voice.
“…Who–are you guys?”
“–Well, to put it nicely, if I have to introduce myself, it’ll be really troublesome…I left a comms estation for you, so mind broadcasting this to the entire military for me? It’ll save time.”
At that moment, an explosion rang.
This time, the roof of the tent was blown up, and at the same time, 3 tanks surrounding them were sliced haplessly.
Causing such a bewildering tragedy–was a young girl in red and white armor, and she suddenly noticed Hikoshima.
“Ah, eh…hello, I’m…AnchoR”
“I’m the older sister RyuZU–of the Initial Y series. My apologies for your futility. Have a nice day.”
