"Is it over?"
Minoru took a breath after confirming that the lights in the sky had vanished.
He suddenly realized the atmosphere had changed.
The temperature was beginning to drop. As the night wore on, the lingering chill of night set in.
A voice could be heard next to him.
"That looked like a rhinoceros beetle fighting a falcon from here. I didn't drink anything, but damn, maybe I'm going crazy. Hahaha! That would be fun! A crazy me might just be the most sane me ever!"
It was followed by a self-deprecating "jeez".
Minoru was unsure what exactly he had heard and so ignored it for the moment.
But when he looked back, Mogami Yoshiko continued staring up into the sky. She did, however, set down her pitcher of sake.
"Would you like a drink?"
"...No thank you."
Minoru was aware how it would look if he accepted alcohol; like he was a drinker. He had learned his lesson back at Kageura's place and he swore he would eventually pay Arafune back for that humiliation. Yes, I'll show you how not to look like a drinker, he thought with a mental clench of the fist. Meanwhile, the Sniper sniffed at the sake.
"Is that amazake? I'll have some! That's nonalcoholic, right!?"
I screwed up! thought Minoru as Yoshiko smiled bitterly toward him and the Sniper who held out a cup. Yoshiko took the cup from the Sniper and handed her a spare bowl.
"This sake rice helps keep out the cold."
"Ohhh, it's full of sake lees! How luxurious, how classy, how genuine."
"Mogami-san, about what we were discussing before..."
"Yes, I'm feeling a little drunk now, so I suppose I can tell you a little."
Yoshiko poured a new cup of amazake, clinked it together with the Sniper's, and drank it.
After a while, she suddenly continued speaking.
"You mean the 'promise', right? I was part of that."
And...
"They dreamed of a large community stretching from here to there and back. Without realizing that was what they wanted, the children wished to remain like family. ...It was the kind of dream only children can have."
Kon sat at a table inside the Suzunari room.
She nodded at Kuruma who was wearing pajamas and serving everyone tea to help wake them up.
Mi-Kon: "A community? Is that like the system her son wanted to make?"
That sounded like an easy thing to create, but she wondered if that was only due to her ignorance of the world. So...
Mi-Kon: "What do you think, Kimura?"
Manager: "First that comment about a system. I think we may have already seen it... As for a community, it depends on how far they were planning on taking it. Was it simply a promise of mutual assistance or was it some kind of alliance?
Kimura added an "of course" as she continued.
Manager: "Mogami-san can also be speaking for her bosses in this case. From what I have been told, Kobayashi came to Mikado City in order to help us out after the first invasion. They were kind enough to build back up homes and universities that had been destroyed. But I guess that is a rough thought if she was not a part of Kobayashi at the time. And the further you go, the harder it is to construct a community, so they may have decided to build up the one already made. To share things means to quit the old way of doing things and to prepare new ones, so it comes with a cost and the people must go through an update as well."
Kuruma viewed a message while pouring tea into two more teacups.
"If you don't have a specific plan for the community, then you don't have to go through all that. In general, I know someone who is trying to get others to work together."
"Are you sure you don't mean they are 'having trouble' doing that?"
Kon asked about a possible correction and Kuruma smiled.
"If you say that, someone will get angry and work even harder to prove you wrong."
Kura-uchi: "Takato really did put that class representative through a lot of trouble, didn't she?"
Ōji: "I can see why she decided to kill that fox..."
White Fox: "I was not killed! I was not!"
Kuru-ma: "Right. ...Takato and Yuki live together now."
Girls: "Wow..."
Kon did not entirely understand, but she did feel an intense power in that.
Mi-Kon: "Jinsei, I suppose I'll ask while I'm at it: what are your thoughts on a community?"
Kon asked as Kuruma nodded and carried the two teacups out into the hall.
Mi-Kon: "Do you have any thoughts on the dream that Mogami-san mentioned?"
Life: "What Yoshihikari was mentioning isn't a dream."
Mi-Kon: "Do you honestly think that misreading of her name is amusing? As for the rest of that... What? Why would you say that?"
"This girl..." he said before actually answering.
Life: "Well? Are you listening? If we're gonna look at this community stuff from a porn game perspective, you have to start with mind-sharing material, and... Ah! Why is everyone canceling my posts!?"
Mi-Kon: "Not to worry. I will view your posts right up until the end of the world. 5, 4, 3, 2..."
Life: "Is that countdown supposed to be to the end of the world!?"
She ignored him and took a sip of tea. It was herbal tea. She pulled some biscotti from the plate next to her which complimented the tea nicely. Going with the peanut rice cake flavor for variation had been the right choice.
At any rate, she more or less understood what the idiot was trying to say.
Mi-Kon: "You are saying it was only a 'dream' because the adults said it was, aren't you?
Life: "Pretty much, yeah. ...The only people who would get all excited about calling it a community or whatever are the adults and people like Akashi. So little Ruri and the others must have seen it differently."
Just as Kon prepared to ask what he meant, a voice reached her from the door. It was Kuruma's.
"Follow you always."
Kon looked over and saw Kuruma smiling with the tray of teacups in his right hand and his left hand on the door.
"They probably didn't use those words, but they must have said something similar. For example...yes, they may have made a promise to be friends forever. I have heard something similar from a fox and wisteria before."
"A promise, you say?"
"Yes." Kuruma nodded with a smile and opened the door. "People keep the promises they make as children. That's what I believe."
.
When Kuruma stepped out into the hall, Murakami and Sekai each took a teacup from him. Sekai hung his head as he did so.
"This was supposed to be unofficial..."
"Refusing an offer from someone with status would be a problem, you know?" pointed out Murakami.
Of course, he could always say he was refusing the offer specifically due to reasons, but the situation had not deteriorated that far yet. Kuruma bowed with the tray in both hands and glanced over toward the non-Suzunari room on the left.
Murakami wondered why.
...Oh.
He realized why, so he quickly moved to call the Yagura Branch representative, but...
"Wah!"
The door flew open like someone had kicked it and the fox came rolling out. The nudist's voice and the sounds of someone rapidly tapping a button came from within.
"Hey, Kuruma, Yuki was getting all spoiled wishing he could have some tea too, so could you make some for him?"
Murakami did not even need to look back to know how Kuruma would react.
"Of course! Um, what about you?"
Mi-Kon: "You leave me no choice. I will serve him with the personal items I brought from the branch office. Oh, dear. I brought coffee beans but not a grinder. ...Well, live and learn."
Life: "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. What in the world are you planning now?"
After a while, Kuruma carried out a cup of tea and a container of coffee beans topped with green onion soy sauce. After Kuruma returned to the Suzunari room with a smile, Sekai spoke up straight across from Murakami.
"Is that good?"
"I'm sure one of them is. The other one probably tastes like coffee beans and green onion soy sauce."
Murakami then asked a question.
"Now, I understand what kind of 'promise' you made. ...The adult employees were worried about the future, so they brought together ones who hold different values when they were young and successfully built up relationships of friendship between them. Is that right?"
"Yeah. ...For Shiraishi's Narumi it was Ruri. For Mogami, who had connected with Kurosaki and Shiraishi before being hired, it was Shuryō. And for Kurosaki, it was me since I had found myself as completely unneeded. Kurosaki apparently wanted to get some acquaintances like Awdry and Taiyōko involved too if possible, but Awdry only had a single small child and Taiyōko were too embroiled in infighting with their child to build any major connections."
He took a breath.
"For guardians, Shiraishi sent Narumi as Ruri's mother, Yoshiko went for herself, and Kurosaki sent Shin, who had inherited the business. ...We were taught and trained quite a bit by our mothers and future bosses."
Manager: "Can you ask something for me?"
What is it? wondered Murakami as Kimura asked her question.
Manager: "I understand Hikigane-san being there, what with stuff we don't know about his history. Abe-san makes sense too. But...why Mog... No, he has a name now. Why Shuryō-san?"
Murakami showed Sekai the question on his phone. Sekai took a sip of tea and a breath.
"That's right," he said to preface his thoughts. "According to the news and tabloids, it was discovered that Narumi cared much more for a child that was not her own, so it caused an incident with Ruri. ...And after Shuryō was taken by Neighbors as part of an attack on Mikado City, the two Abes were so distraught that something happened."
They were doomed from that moment.
"We knew we would eventually lose people, but these were still our 'family'. So we made a promise... We promised to protect each other. We promised to find ways to overcome this kind of thing and then let everyone be free."
Kimura breathed a heavy sigh in the Border base's cafeteria while still facing the window.
She thought about Sekai's use of the word "family" and what that had meant to them.
...Is this the spirit of connections that Tai-... Our former team had been missing?
They had a powerful will of resistance and a sense of fellowship that surpassed business or family.
"In a way...you might be able to say their will to protect each other and keep them from being lost only served to strengthen their bonds."
No, you probably need to be old enough to understand the meaning of loss to think that way, reconsidered Kimura. As kids, they probably just didn't want to lose each other and saw no further meaning in it.
At the elementary school Kimura taught at part-time, some of the children would transfer to another school in Mikado Coty due to a parent's job. Some of the children would cry when they had to leave, even though they knew they could still see their friends if they wanted to.
...Why is that?
The emotion of sorrow may have come from viewing a "change" as a "loss".
But, she thought.
"They failed to keep that promise..."
"That's right," said the Kotowari Sniper.
She had already let go of Kimura's hand and was gently spinning around atop a chair by the tables. Her hair was swept up in the wind and she smiled while briefly pointing Kimura's way with her swinging hand.
"You honestly know why that happened, don't you?"
"I know all too well."
Without a way to defend, they could not escape Shuryō's capture and any downfall. And in the downfall's case it had been especially bad as it had involved Border.
If Mogami was to find the missing child that had been taken long ago, what would have to happen? The answer was obvious.
"Border has to get to where they are. That was absolutely crucial, yet we clearly have not."
"Talk about spoiled. ...Couldn't these guys have shown some backbone? They are just employees."
There was no harshness in Ōji's words. It was obvious he knew they had not had a choice. So Kimura too walked over to the edge of the table and answered.
"We do not have the resources for multiple trips through Gates in succession even with sponsors. Border also has to protect Earth and the Neighbors won't stop. They had no choice but to wait."
Even as she said that, Kimura asked a silent question.
...Is that really true?
Her question concerned Mogami.
Mogami Shuryō was just the son and Yoshiko was no the leader. So Kobayashi's side would...
...View things based as parents instead of bosses.
Something about that felt odd to Kimura.
"Why did Shuryō-san create such an impact?"
She had her doubts.
"Mogami Yoshiko – who carried the spirit of this, knew the meaning of family, and had managed to convince her bosses – accepted Shuryō's capture without fighting it? Yet years later, she starts firing and showing a rebellious spirit?"
"She's a sharp one."
Hiura heard Yoshiko speak while looking up at the moon.
When she noticed Hiura's gaze, she smiled with the ends of her eyebrows lowered and looked the other way. Then the vixen's hair moved as she looked up to the moon again.
"Shuryō was a good boy. Clever too. ...As I lived in this city and, as someone who climbed up, gained some power in this city, he was born from connection stemming from that, so he is both my child and a child of this city."
So...
"Even as the invasion came, he knew very well I would resist and try to save him when the Neighbors arrived with their attack."
"You don't mean..."
"I do. ...He played decoy while I was not watching."
Yoshiko forced out a "ko ko" of laughter.
"That one hurt... It meant he did not trust that I could protect him."
Her shoulders fell and she sighed toward the floor.
"Of course, it was the same for Shiraishi."
Repairs and measurements were underway in the crumbled and partially caved-in main garden of White Rock, but a conversation was also underway.
It occurred below the large tree in the center with leaves stripped and branches broken by the Satellite's attack.
"Yes, something happened for us as well."
Narumi was speaking. She sat on the earthen ground and Ruri's head rested on her lap. Ruri's eyes were closed in peaceful sleep and Narumi's hand held a warm pad to her forehead.
"Ruri was quite active. It wasn't easy giving birth to her."
Narumi smiled bitterly. Border's representative sat nearby with a blanket over his shoulders and the Attacker sat cross-legged next to him.
"After all, she came out kicking and screaming then. It hurt unbelievably bad on the way out. I just wanted to shout, 'This hurts like hell!' Yoshiko was there to help as a midwife and she was the one to tell me Ruri was almost out. I asked if it could wait another day, but that wasn't possible."
Mad Hatter: "Why are these employees so strange?"
"If I had looked into it ahead of time, we would have known I had an active one, but – just like someone else I will not mention – I had no experience with men and didn't want to let on that I was pregnant. So when I felt all the movement inside me during the pregnancy, I thought I was going to give birth to something with a whole bunch of arms and legs. I thought I was going to have to change my tastes."
"...Would you have...been fine with...that..."
Narumi nodded at the question from Border's representative.
"Whatever they looked like, they would have been my child. They would have inherited a portion of me. At the very least, I wasn't going to reject them until they had grown up. Besides, they would be a child born in this city."
"...That is...nice..."
"You seem like a troubled child, pardon my saying. But the look you have now makes you seem more like your surname instead of your given name."
Narumi continued as Border's representative tilted his head. She looked to the third daughter and the one had fought who stood around them to protect them and she looked to Rusu inside her tablet. Trigger no longer active and now on the lap of Border's representative.
"That Neighbor is not a normal one. It was something that Shuryō had thought of and drawn many pictures of. But that was not all. ...He created many pictures of different animals. Falcons seemed to be his favorite, so he made many that he showed off to Ruri when they were young. After seeing something like that recently we realized something. What exactly happened to that boy and what he had been doing. Thanks to Kotowari, we have gotten the final pieces to this puzzle. We know that this Neighbor is suppose to be a protector after the group using it came to Earth. A connection was made to use her trion so that she could control it herself."
"But," interjected the Attacker. "The child that Neighbor's s'ppose to protect turned out to be incapable of handlin' it, right?"
.
Ikoma understood a few things now.
...If this Neighbor tried to get to this world by using someone else's trion...
"It's need a constant source of energy. ...Neighbors takes humans for their source of trion and sometimes they are kept as power sources. ...Well, that's what Fuji told me just now. Oh, she seemed kinda mad when I woke her up. Anyway, this one went and attached itself to Ruri as a program, didn't it?"
That would be why Ruri would lose consciousness. No one knew what happened when trion was directly taken from a body. But...
"Someone else got taken, didn't they?"
"No, not actually."
Ikoma noticed Musashi looking to Chisato. Chisato responded by shaking her head a little and turning toward Ikoma.
"None of us know how to act right now. You Border people should know how to close Gates and know if Ruri's memory loss is due to this connection."
"Then..."
"Right," confirmed Chisato. "If you don't know anything, we are far into the dark concerning this matter. Don't forget, we are still just citizens of Mikado City."
And...
"We can only managed what we can as normal people, even if we try to show otherwise to you guys. This is proof of that seeing as how I could tell the difference between using Ortlinde by itself and using a Trigger. You guys are far stronger than us, but even you don't know what this is about."
"It's become quite a problem." Narumi brushed up Ruri's bangs. "We had been thinking that we could use this Neighbor to help you Border people out...no, the bosses had hoped not to use anything like that if possible, but with the recent invasion, they are not sure. What's more, apparently this Neighbor is unstable in the current state, it has become a mad falcon that is trying to decide what to do right now. It must not know whether to go to Ruri or find another way of continuing on."
After all...
"This Neighbor was built to live with and protect Ruri, but the one who made it had been changed due to becoming a Neighbor themselves. Something like this has never happened before, so we don't know how to handle it."
That isn't good,thought Kimura.
...So those are the circumstances of the three businesses. Wait, that isn't quite right... This goes beyond just sponsorships and businesses. This is involving those who have been effected by Neighbors.
They had hoped to be a community and that dream had been destroyed, but the spirit of that dream still affected them all and tied them all together. Also...
"What the hell's this?"
Mizukami placed a hand on his forehead but sighed in apparent disinterest. He was viewing a few documents sent over by Shiraishi's third daughter and they revealed something about Ortlinde, not the Falcon.
"They'd been makin' it for that long?"
It had been a work in progress to handle the Neighbors without the use of Border's Triggers and the fact that it existed had been disguised.
And it had been thought up by...
"Tenryū Seidō!?"
Shobu: "...M-my father was...helping to make...something like that...?"
Red Sky: "Seriously!?"
Shinoda: "Shit!"
"Shinoda" has deleted a message.
Shinoda: "My bad. I didn't realize it would get that."
Was replying to him a virtue? Or was that unknowable? At any rate, Kimura had a sudden thought about Ortlinde.
...From what I know, Border has tried making machines that run on trion. The idea is good in theory, but the cost of that kind of thing was a major put off.
Comparing Border's standard Triggers with regular machines, it was clear that Trigger were the only things best suited to use trion for at the moment. Everything had been set already and it was far easier than mixing trion with already made machines. But...
...If the cost for such things were the problem, that means it is likely the trion usage was a part of that issue. So if something even close to that was made, wouldn't the user need a large amount of trion?
Triggers used a person's trion to make everything from the weapons to the trion bodies used. There were small adjustments that could be made, but they were also something that could simply be "set". From the looks of things, Ortlinde was not something that could be "set".
Something similar had appeared for the oldest Shiraishi sister, but that was likely just the youngest allowing the oldest to use Ortlinde. Thinking about it, this was a full violation of Border's rules yet it worked at a basic level.
"For something like to exist is amazing."
She did not know why Tenryū Seidō had helped in creating that, but the Yagura director and the general affairs director would have more to think about as the ones who allowed him to go with the Wanderers. As for Kimura herself...
"...What am I supposed to do about all this?"
She had to find out even more tomorrow and the three business meeting once she made it through that.
...How am I supposed to bring this all together?
How could she join together the three businesses, rather, their hurt employees, whose dreams of a community had already been crushed, with Border, who had caused that? How could she prompt them to continue their sponsorship? She wondered if there was a way and she decided to try whatever she could come up with.
This had originally been something for Yuki to do, something for him to solve, but she had been asked for help and brought herself into this situation. Everyone else had been brought in due to Yuki's trust in her.
I tend to fail him a lot, don't I?
Letting out a self-deprecating sigh, she looked to her phone.
Manager: "Kitazoe-san, I'm concerned about something, so give me all the information on food history. Things like the transition to population growth mentioned in history."
Zoe: "Oh? I don't mind, but are you sure? It's possible you could get told off for asking for something like that now."
Manager: "That's fine. You can't become a politician if you're afraid of having your words exposed."
This time it was a laugh.
...I'm not even a politician yet. Stop raising yourself up like that.
She received a reply after a short delay.
Zoe: "Kimuran-chan."
Manager: "What kind of name is that?"
But when she looked, his post contained some of that history data.
Zoe: "I am not a kind enough person to show off to strangers, Kimuran-chan. ...I think you take some of these things too seriously. No, maybe I should say you take too much responsibility onto yourself."
This isn't someone you get lectured by every day, she thought. But...
Manager: "That's just what a politician does."
Then she realized something.
Manager: "Sorry."
...Kitazoe-san was being considerate specifically because that's what a politician does.
She was the one that did not understand. But then a response appeared on her phone.
Zoe: "No, no. If I was at all useful...yes, then spread my praises among some shop owners!"
I'm glad to see he hasn't changed, she thought with a noticeably weak laugh.
I need to rethink some things, she decided. She felt she was taking too many things onto herself and making it all too complicated.
It was true she had a lot of information, but she could not just accept it all. How was she supposed to go through it all and process it?
Life: "Hey."
"What?"
Life: "I hope you can start grinning before long."
...Idiot.
Don't worry about me at times like this. Honestly.
"I need to cool my head a little."
She moved over and swiped a Trigger from a nearby agent and tossed Krümel to the Kotowari Sniper. "Oh, dear," said the girl as she caught the dog. "Ah," said Suzaku and the other, but Kimura ignored them and turned the Trigger on.
"Oh, to hell with it."
The most troublesome thing of all might be me, she thought as she collapsed back after opening a window.
She heard voices above her, but that was also ignored. Taking the Trigger was just a way for her to make sure she survived.
She felt the air and tenseness of the wind's pressure on her back, a chill soaked into her hair and clothes, and the sound came last of all.
There was a moon in the sky. Once it set and the sun rose, she had to look for information again.
She would be busy tomorrow.
"Rhino... Pyrínas, are you okay? Even giving my trion might not be enough."
Two people sat in the general area of the Yagura Branch in the pale shadows of the night, neither one wanting to touch a light switch in case they got in trouble.
It was Futoyuki and Pyrínas. Pyrínas had his hand held out, Futoyuki held that hand tightly as if it would disappear otherwise.
Pyrínas looked at their hands.
"...You are really worried, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am."
Futoyuki added a "hey" and looked around the room.
"Is this place fine enough to stay in? You are free to do whatever."
The Yagura Branch was still being fixed up by the ones who would be using it. A broken floorboard could be seen off to the side along with a mat big enough to cover the missing spot.
Pyrínas looked to the former leader and blinked.
"...I did what I wanted. ...You had told me that Stepney was with you, meanwhile Mitsubachi and Michelle are still in this city. ...The people they care about are also here. ...Fighting against Satellite is not something I will regret. ...I am nowhere near the level I was at when using the Pyrínas System, but that is fine. ...My body is expend-..."
"You figured it out really quickly. As someone who helped to make you, I am very happy. ...But apparently I didn't do as much as I thought."
"...Hatomi managed the mechanical side of things. ...Shuryō managed the 'humanity' that would be implemented. ...You managed the reasoning for the Pyrínas System's continued existence."
"I see."
Futoyuki nodded, said "hey" again, and took back his hand. They had reached the limit of trion that Pyrínas could take in his current state. With that being done, he looked over to the refrigerator in the connected kitchen through the door.
"...Would you like something to drink, sir? ...I can get it."
"You did that on purpose. But no need. I can get something myself. ...Have you had any 'coffee', Pyrínas?"
"...Futoyuki, I hear that drink is bitter."
"Pyrínas, is that why you went with the kids to get 'milk'?"
With a small smile, Futoyuki moved over to the large machine. He said "hey" yet again and started to say more, but Pyrínas cut him off.
"...What is it you really want to say after saying 'hey', Futoyuki?"
"...That's the great thing about 'you', Pyrínas."
He open the refrigerator door, pulled out a cup he ad put in, and filled it up. He pulled it back from the dispenser inside of it, put on a lid, and repeated the process for a second drink.
"Here. I decided to just get some water."
"Futoyuki."
"I know," said Futoyuki. "Do you think this world would have been fine if we did not come here?"
"...It would likely change from the natural law of progression they follow. ...But if they do not improve or decline, then it will not change. ...You could say our arrival was just a turning point on their course."
"Do you remember what our leader said?"
"...I was made as a latest model of Rhinoceros Beetle by 'Pyrínas'. ...I would like to remind you of that."
Futoyuki was about to reply when he was cut off again.
"...But yes. ...I do remember," said Pyrínas. "...Everything changes whether someone wants it to or not and trying to resist that is something that will cause unfortunate events. ...Even so, going too far into change will cause just as much unfortunate events."
"Did we...cause an unfortunate event?"
"...Tomorrow, everyone will-..." Pyrínas shook his head just as a clock showed inside the Yagura Branch. "...No, but now, it's today."
The calm tone of a bell rang twelve times. The soft snoring of the girl left behind and the child sleeping over tonight were drowned out by the light sounds of work being done in a different room. It was different from the previous night.
Pyrínas held his cup in both hands and took a sip.
"...Water really is a bland drink."
"You're a harsh critic, Pyrínas."
"...Let us believe, sir. ...If we can do that, then we will be involved with a fortune event. ...And rather than viewing the first former leader in a bad light, let's view him as a caring person who gave himself for everyone else."
Pyrínas placed a hand on the paper bag Futoyuki had placed on a nearby table.
"...From what I heard...you bought a lot of hotdogs and caused a small uproar there."
"I thought it would be best not to hold back."
"...If you want to cause a fortune event, shouldn't you try to do more things for others?"
"I just thought what I wanted to do and what everything thought I would do happened to match up there. Although it's possible I just wanted to think that."
"...Then," said Pyrínas with a nod and a glance to the distance city outside of the window. "...Have you finished taking a break now, sir?"
"Can I maybe continue taking a break until morning?"
Futoyuki held up cup.
"Water really is bland."
"...I think you started out right, sir. ...It's the middle of the night after all."
Pyrínas lowered his head as he continued.
"...Right. ...Tomorrow, do your best to help whoever you can create a fortune event, sir."