Part 113: Takatoshi Hijiyama 7 (FINAL)

Chapter 113: Takatoshi Hijiyama 7 (FINAL)

Music: SEEKER (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)



Well… I think I finally found what we needed. The answer to our problem.
What is it?






Consider Tsukasa Okino

(What can I do right now…? I have to save everyone. That means I need to stay at Okino’s side.)



The command ship’s still behind the horizon. That means still about half an hour until they’re in comms range. Now it’s a waiting game.



You remember our talk about the D-Code?
Something inside that inner-lossiter? It's the thing calling the Deimos, right?
You got it. More specifically… The important part is its connections to three discrete points. One of those points is the command ship in orbit, which I'll show you here. From that ship, it extracts the data of the Deimos themselves. That data's used to manufacture them in the automated factories in Sector 1… Then, the factory-fresh Deimos are deployed to attack Universal Control. And that's how the D-Code works.
So why do the attacks make people disappear?
I might actually have the answer to that one. But, well… It'd be better if you heard it from her. The command ship.

Must be referring to Miyuki Inaba.





Music: Metal Demon (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)





……




Must have come from aboveground. I’m definitely triggering the voice recognition, but… Looks like my operation authority has been revoked.



They’ll be back in action soon.





You’re telling me.





That console…




…You stay here. I’ll go set the timer.





The android briefly turns around to face Okino, but is halted by his command.



Surprise! I was hiding over here in the corner!





Why only me!? I have to get back now, or Okino might not… Someone, anyone… I need to find someone who knows how to time travel…

Consider Tsukasa Okino

(I know what I saw. Just as I was shifting, I saw Okino… And the androids were after him. I need to get back and rescue him!)









Consider Ms. Morimura

(Okino was looking into that teacher… Maybe she knows something about time travel.

Consider Keitaro Miura

(If what Keitaro said is true… The Sentinel’s capable of time travel. So if I can take it back from the government and Shikishima… Maybe I can use it to save Okino…)

Consider Ei Sekigahara

(Crawling to him for help leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but… Desperate times call for desperate measures.)




Hijiyama looks around the schoolyard, but sees no one of interest.




Okay, buddy. Jeez.





There’s something I need to ask you.
Uh… sure, what’s up?

Use Ei Sekigahara on Female Student



Seen any suspicious characters? Sharp eyes, acting fishy?
Yyyeah, right in front of—



…?

Use Ms. Morimura on Female Student



Do you have any idea where she might be?
Uh… you need to find Ms. Morimura? I think she already went home for the day…
Really…? Of all times, she had to be gone during an emergency… I’ll have to look somewhere else…

Use Keitaro Miura on Female Student



He’d be wearing a school hat. Has he been around here?
A school hat? You mean that middle-schooler kid?
You’ve seen him?
Uh, sorry… I don’t really know anything. But you might want to talk to one of our track members.
Where would I find them?
Around now, she’d probably be at the rest area…
Understood. Thank you.



My apologies. I appreciate the help.





Uh… for what?

Use Ei Sekigahara on Track Member



Have you seen anyone like that around school?
…Uh, yeah.
Really!
I'm talking to him.
…Anyone else?
Well... there's also Ogata-kun…
……

Unfortunately, Nenji is not going to be able to help us with this specific issue. Unless he suddenly figured out how to use a gate.



Use Keitaro Miura on Track Member

Any idea where I might find him?
A school hat...? You mean Natsuno's boyfriend?
Natsuno…?
One of my friends in track has a boyfriend… And he always wears this super vintage-looking school hat.
That's him. Do you know where he is?
Hmm… He wasn't near the athletics building… I do remember something… Oh, I've seen him around the old school building…
The old school building…? So, the wooden schoolhouse. Thank you. Much appreciated.



Yes, thank you.

If we hadn’t asked the first girl about Morimura, we could have asked this one about her, with the same result (she gets disqualified).





Hijiyama chooses the worst possible time to have a flashback…

Music: Now Or Never (Kazuki Higashihara)



……



What’s this?




Don’t be crazy, I-I…
……



Déjà vu, huh? Isn’t this where I confessed to Nenji Ogata, too? That seemed like it really got to you.



*blushing* You idiot… You thought it’d make me happy for a man to confess to me?



Aww, did Okino catch feelings for this big lug?



Music: Metal Demon (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)






You…? Wait, maybe…?
This was the correct area to search.





(to Natsuno) Why do you have this? Who are you…?
Takatoshi-san. Let me… take you.

Music: Hack and Crash (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)



…!?
He has been wounded by androids. His condition is critical.
What!?



……
How do you know about Okino…?
Television broadcasts and command ship transmissions. Miyuki Inaba used them to inform me.

Laughing thinking about BJ watchin’ the teevee looking for messages from Miyuki Inaba.

Natsuno. He will need it.
Oh… sure.




A phaser. You will need a weapon to neutralize the androids.
Some kind of future-gun…?
I extracted it from the Shikishima laboratory. It was designed based on data from the mainframe. Natsuno, please stay here.
What?
It will be dangerous.








…Three active androids detected.
I’m on it!
















Ugh…
Don’t worry, I’ll get you to a hospital!

Music: Living in the Moment (Yoshimi Kudo)

Hijiyama-kun…
Don’t talk. I’m here.
The… letter… Read… my letter…





Okino’s… He’s gone…
Universal Control… has isolated him.

Just like Tamao…




You don’t have much of a knack for love letters…




Read Okino’s Letter



“So I’d like to share the Sentinel with you. I hid it in the ocean in Sector 5. It’s the one I piloted. Sentinel No. 12. If anything happens to me, you’ll need access to it. So I made one last adjustment to your body on my own. The Sentinel activation switch is on your left forearm.”




Activate Sentinel



If you really are alive… if you’re out there, somewhere… Then you’re going to need a home to return to. It’d be a shame if it was gone.

Music: To the Final Battle (Yoshimi Kudo)

So… I’ll fight to my last breath to save it.









I thought I heard Okino’s voice…



…! Okino!?

Music: Mutual Telepathy (Composer: Kazuki Higashihara, Arranger: Rikako Watanabe)

You can't see them, but I do still have legs. No ghosts here.
So the scout was right...!
I'm still alive. Because we shared the Sentinel… You're the only one who I can communicate with.
What can I do? How do I save you?
I can't go back to that world anymore. I was cut off from it. To keep me alive. This was the answer, Hijiyama-kun… Remember what we talked about? The mystery process eating up 80% of the innerlocitor's memory? Our hearing, vision, scent, touch, and taste… It was supplying sensory data. Everything we ever perceived. It made everything in that world seem real. That was practically its highest-priority function.

Wait a minute…

"Seem" real? You don't mean it was all fake? My home, the factory...?
The five sectors are not reality. Besides the fifteen of us, every human we've ever known… They were created by Universal Control. That world is a simulated space. A massive, perfect illusion for us.

It was the Matrix the whole time!?

None of it was real…?
These cockpits we're in right now? That is reality. My designs for the Sentinels never had cockpits at all.

Wait, what?

What kind of suicidal moron would get in a 35-meter weaponized metal suit? A single punch's recoil impact would hit the pilot like a train crash.

Ha!

But then the finished Sentinels had ways to get inside. I wasn't too familiar with the systems we'd pulled from the mainframe data. I figured it was just a spec I hadn't noticed at the time. But it wasn't even a cockpit at all. They're growth pods. Meant to keep our bodies healthy. We were born inside these pods. We have never known life outside of them.

…Huh.

…… …If all that's true… How do we get out?
I don't know if we can get out. But at least one thing's clear. If the Deimos invasion destroys the world we knew… Then we will all die inside these pods.
…… Fat chance of that.



…No matter what else may change, my duty is the same.



Hijiyama-kun—



…Hijiyama-kun…



…Let’s go.




Aww…








No time travel, no teleportation, no (real) gargantuan mecha! You heard it here, folks: 13 Sentinels is HARD SCIENCE FICTION!!!!





And that’s Hijyama done.



Just our final Gouto event left. We’ll see that next time. But before that, we haven’t seen the board in a few updates, so…



First up, we have an implied nanomachine injection from Okino to Hijiyama (no jokes about that phrasing, please), so we link them in blue.



We add a few new segments to the 2188 segment as well. “Morimura is Okino’s mom, kinda” and “Project Ark is in a simulation???”



We also add two more bits about Kengo Ogata and Professor Morimura potentially taking over the clones of Nenji and Chihiro. These memory downloads do not seem to have happened (or did they???? ) because Nenji’s still the good, sweet boy we all know and love. And so is Iori, I guess, whatever. According to Gouto, the memories would have been downloaded when they turned 18, so we still had some time, given that the simulation only lasts about sixteen years before the Deimos arrive.



I add one new mystery to the board: ‘Why is everyone naked?” It is a mystery that we didn’t even know was a mystery until now, but we solved it. And because it’s solved, I immediately remove it from the board. I also remove every other lingering mystery from the board, because they have, to my satisfaction, been answered at this point, be it from this last update or from one of the several preceding. But that doesn’t mean there’s no mysteries left in this game. Because there is a big one…



Well, looks like those Sentinel kids have got themselves in a whole heap of trouble. How are they going to get out of this mess? Will they? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out!



And here’s the board.