Chapter 39: "Turning the World's Malice into Gasoline (Hacking Engine)"
「……chap. ……ton. ……chap.»
The heart of the ‘Deluxe Mudwater Float’‚ the steel rack’s bottom plate‚ is being gently yet persistently slapped by brownish waves. The library that saved us from oxygen deletion and the observation tower that Momiji-chan had protected all by herself are now nothing more than “past logs” sunk at the bottom of the water where light cannot reach.
“Hey‚ Rin-chan. My ‘stomach sensor’ has been staging a protest march at the brain’s reception desk saying ‘Isn’t the main dish for today ready yet?’ for a while now…”
I hugged my left arm—which was heavy and cold like someone else’s forgotten belonging even though it was part of me—with my right hand‚ and peered at Momiji-chan’s face as she lay sideways on a sled in the center of the raft. Her red hair‚ melting into the twilight‚ was being carried away by the night’s silence and glowed faintly like a mysterious parfait topping.
“…Shut up. Right now I’m cross-referencing (hacking) Momiji’s vitals with the remaining fuel of this ‘relic from the old era.’”
Rin-chan proudly shook the shoulder of her tattered black jacket and raised a mud-stained silver lighter. Her exposed wounded shoulder stood out painfully yet beautifully under the night’s pale moonlight‚ like a curse mark symbolizing rebellion against the world.
“…Statistically speaking‚ Nagisa-san’s energy consumption is an overload that exceeds the average value for a single individual (team) by fifteen percent. …It is absolutely unacceptable.”
In the corner of the raft‚ Haru-kun spread out his waxed waterproof notebook while keeping his broken right leg at an unnatural angle. While irritably ruffling his ash-silver wavy hair‚ he tapped the pencil lead against the notebook with a clack-clack. Apparently‚ my bottomless appetite was nothing more than the biggest noise that messed up his equations.
“Geez‚ Haru-kun‚ you’re lacking romance! Delicious food is the strongest tool for repairing our ‘tomorrow’!”
I rubbed my right thigh where the AC adapter tourniquet was biting in‚ trying to soothe it. The chill from the steel rack’s bottom plate seeping into my bare soles was slowly sending a “closing time” signal to my life functions‚ but right now I was investing my entire excitement index at full swing into supporting Momiji-chan’s warmth.
“…Thank you‚ Nagisa. …But for me… just being able to breathe a little warm air… is enough…”
Momiji-chan made her chest exoskeleton (splint) creak faintly with a “…kyuu” and laughed with a vanishing breath. Even though she should have been burning with a fever hot enough to cause burns‚ her slender body was trembling slightly from an evil chill freezing her from the inside. That fragile‚ ephemeral quality made my ‘hero detection sensor’ react with a painful squeeze‚ almost making me forget my bottomless hunger for a moment.
“Leave it to me! Rin-chan‚ can I get approval (accept) to activate the ‘Deluxe Warm Soup Plan’?”
At my question‚ Rin-chan nodded heavily with the severity of a king of a sacred domain. With careful hands she struck the silver lighter and brought the spark of life close to the wick of the makeshift empty-can stove.
Shh‚ shh.
A dry scraping sound that tore through the silence rang out several times. But the orange light that was supposed to save us refused to appear.
“…H-huh…? …No way. The oil… is gone…?”
Rin-chan’s fingers froze as if they had lost all absolute laws. She roughly pried open the lighter’s lid and stared directly at the cotton inside. Her eyes were shaking violently with a dread toward the “outside of calculations” that she had never shown before‚ no matter what physical trouble had come her way.
“…Confirmed abnormal volatilization due to spatial negative pressure. Fuel is disappearing at more than three times the expected speed. …Unacceptable.”
Haru-kun’s flat voice rang across the dark water surface with the precise rhythm of a death god’s footsteps.
“Huh…? Disappearing…? Rin-chan‚ does that mean it’s as irreparable and serious an error as my parfait having no sauce on it!?”
I couldn’t help but lean forward. In sync with the rocking hull‚ the AC adapter on my right leg mercilessly tightened around my flesh with a “grind.”
My proud partner—that perfect computer (Rin-chan)—was trembling her fingertips in humiliation like a child who had written the wrong answer for the first time in her life. That sight disturbed my chest more than any sharp pain at my feet.
“…Calculation error. Does that mean in this rewritten world‚ the very rule called ‘fire’ no longer exists…?”
Rin-chan gripped the lighter so hard she almost crushed it and dropped to her knees right there. The red marks of heavy labor remaining on her shoulder throbbed pitch-black as if symbolizing despair.
“…Recalculating survival probability. Due to the loss of the heat source‚ the time until Momiji-san’s vital signs stop is… six hours remaining. …Unacceptable.”
Haru-kun coldly overwrote the death sentence as data. The dark sea spreading behind us. The enormous shadow of the ‘black wall’ slowly approaching from the west.
We had finally had our right to survival—called ‘energy’—confiscated by this world. Just as my excitement index was about to sink into a negative deep sea for the first time‚ it happened.
“…Hmph. So they think they stole fire from us? …How interesting.”
Rin-chan‚ who had been hanging her head‚ slowly raised her face like a beast that had caught its prey. On her lips was the arrogant yet breathtakingly beautiful smile befitting our fearless queen.
“Nagisa. Haru. …If the existing rule called fire has died‚ we just have to create a new ‘rule’ right here. …We’ll turn the world’s malice into our new heartbeat (engine).”
“…The world’s malice into our new heart?”
I asked back‚ forgetting even the protest march in my stomach at Rin-chan’s far-too-‘final-boss’-like fearless line.
In the western sky‚ the eerie ‘black wall’ still loomed as always. The ceaseless magnetic anomalies it emitted were a deluxe assortment set of ‘the world’s harassment’ trying to delete us from this world.
“That’s right‚ Rin-chan! It’s like dumping a ton of sugar into unbearably bitter black coffee and repairing it into a special café au lait‚ right!?”
“…The analogy is fatally sugary‚ but the principle is close.”
Rin-chan proudly shook the shoulder of her black jacket that had lost its sleeves and crawled toward the base of the makeshift engine’s rudder like a beast. With mud-covered fingertips she ruthlessly pried open the cover of the brass direction finder directly connected there and violently yanked out the thin lead wires inside.
Leaving the important ‘nerves’ that transmitted Momiji-chan’s faint heartbeat to the rudder untouched‚ she was now forcibly building an unknown ‘forbidden circuit’ branched (bypassed) from there with her own hands.
“…The rudder’s automatic control (servo) will be maintained solely by the physical balance of wind pressure on this ‘black sail.’ Using that margin‚ we’ll bypass the magnetic remnants that the direction finder keeps picking up straight into Momiji’s vital maintenance device.”
The magnetic needle embedded in the rudder was still spinning wildly at high speed. As a direction finder it was completely ‘closed for business‚’ but to Rin-chan’s sharp eyes‚ those irregular and ferocious movements seemed to be an indicator pointing to a mountain of treasure that could compensate for the depleted energy.
“…Rin-san‚ are you sane? Statistically‚ the efficiency of converting external magnetic anomalies into controllable energy is a mere 0.03% or less. …That’s on the same level of recklessness as trying to store lightning in a commercial battery.”
In the corner of the raft‚ Haru-kun hugged his waterproof notebook like a shield‚ squatting while protecting his broken right leg‚ and calmly drove the nail in. His ash-silver wavy hair whipped violently in the night wind‚ and the words ‘Unacceptable’ floated coldly in his eyes.
“Haru‚ you’re right that ‘storing’ energy is impossible. But—if we ‘feed’ this malice directly‚ the story changes.”
Rin-chan connected the wiring of the direction finder she had violently yanked out straight to the circuit board of Momiji-chan’s vital monitor lying on the sled‚ scattering pale sparks.
The moment she did‚ the monitor’s waveform began to fluctuate wildly‚ resonating (syncing) with the abnormal rotation speed of the mad magnetic needle.
“…I understand… Rin. …This magnetic wave… is striking… the board inside my splint… with perfect timing at regular intervals…!”
Momiji-chan made her chest exoskeleton (splint) creak faintly with a “…kyuu” and‚ while burning with fever‚ stared straight back into Rin-chan’s eyes.
She had continued observing the end of this world called ‘initialization (format)’ from the lonely cage of Sector 14. Her delicate body had now become a cruel antenna that most sensitively received and resonated with the world’s malice.
“…Haru. Remember that ‘0.02-second blank’ you recorded in your notebook before. The reversal cycle of spatial negative pressure that accompanies the system rewrite… spit out that rhythm right here!”
Rin-chan sharply pointed at the notebook on Haru-kun’s lap. Not a trace of fear toward the loss of the old-era rule called fire remained in her fingertip.
“…Synchronizing pulse waveforms‚ you mean? By reversing the coil’s magnetic flux in sync with the ‘swells’ of the magnetic anomalies‚ we can obtain a steady electromotive force through electromagnetic induction. Converting that into electrical resistance (Joule heat) would create an instant heater… In theory‚ it’s possible. But who exactly is going to control that terrifyingly precise synchronization (timing)?”
Haru-kun’s pencil began furiously writing equations on the blank page of Day 3. A heat to logically crush despair dwelled in his gray eyes.
“That’s me‚ Haru-kun! My ‘hero detection sensor’ can sniff out not just the stock of delicious parfaits‚ but even the ‘gaps in the world’s bugs’!”
I proudly stuck up my right thumb.
Of course‚ my tofu brain couldn’t calculate physical timing. But the heat on Rin-chan’s back‚ Momiji-chan’s faint heartbeat‚ the sound of Haru-kun tapping his notebook—my excitement index alone knew the miraculous moment when all of those overlapped into one.
“…Nagisa will pick up the timing with ‘intuition‚’ Momiji’s vitals will act as the ‘crystal oscillator (system clock)‚’ I will ‘hack’ the circuit… And Haru‚ you will ‘accept’ the result as official history.”
Rin-chan lined up the spare steel rack support pillars we had recovered and the aluminum pipes from the IV stand in the center of the raft. It was like a ritual redefining the remnants of civilization as “weapons.”
“If the rule called fire has died‚ we’ll just build a civilization here that doesn’t use fire. We’ll forcibly repair an ‘exception clause’ just for us into the arrogant rules called physical laws.”
Rin-chan’s fearless smile shone sharply like static electricity illuminating the dark sea in pale blue.
“All right! Starting construction of the ‘Deluxe Magnetic Parfait Engine’ that turns the world’s harassment into gasoline!!”
At my shout as the signal‚ an unprecedented ‘intellectual rebellion’ was about to be born on the night sea.
“…Ughhh. Rin-chan‚ this is less like decorating a parfait and more like a giant ‘needle-through-the-eye punishment’…”
In the center of the raft I hugged the ice-cold spare support pillar of the steel rack and desperately held down the end of the thin copper wire with my right fingertips.
The night sea wasn’t satisfied with just robbing us of our vision; it was slowly coming to ‘delete’ even our body heat. Yet my cheeks had been unbearably hot like marshmallows put in an oven for a while now.
“…Don’t move‚ Nagisa. Even one millimeter of overlap and the magnetic flux density won’t be uniform‚ and it won’t sync with Momiji’s pulse (clock).”
Rin-chan knelt so close that her nose almost touched mine and obsessively wrapped the ultra-thin copper wire around the pillar one loop at a time.
Her black jacket still had its sleeves torn off from the earlier escape. Every time she worked‚ the bare white shoulder that brushed my field of vision radiated the violent yet earnest body heat of someone fighting the ‘world’s malice’ head-on‚ rising like a heat haze.
“…Haru. Any deviation in the pulse waveform?”
“…External magnetic anomaly amplitude stable at a 0.2-second cycle. The ‘valleys of negative pressure’ accompanying the system rewrite are occurring at regular intervals. …Right now‚ Momiji-san’s heartbeat (pulse) is perfectly filling them. …Acceptable.”
In the corner of the raft‚ Haru-kun illuminated the waterproof notebook with the narrow beam of a flashlight and marked progress with the precision of a cold second hand.
“…However‚ to convert this electromotive force into Joule heat and then directly connect it to the rotational torque of the ventilation fan motor‚ we still need 400 more turns (layers) of winding. …Nagisa-san‚ please do not let go of that pillar under any circumstances.”
“Four hundred times!? Haru-kun‚ that’s already at the level of breaking the all-you-can-eat record for wanko soba!!”
I almost screamed‚ but after seeing Rin-chan’s sharp‚ blade-like eyes I hurriedly swallowed my words.
The fingertips of my only movable right hand were already losing sensation from the cold metal and friction. But I still had one more strongest ‘tool’ left to repair this situation.
“Hey‚ Rin-chan. Feel free to use this ‘marshmallow arm’ of mine. Right now it’s the most stable ‘high-class jig’ in the world!”
Using my remaining right arm‚ I casually dropped my left arm—which had become heavy like someone else’s luggage after losing sensation—onto Rin-chan’s lap with a thud.
“…Nagisa? What are you…”
“Put the pillar here. My arm’s softness should absorb all the raft’s violent rocking and vibration and help Rin-chan’s precision work!”
At my outrageous suggestion‚ Rin-chan hesitated for just a moment‚ then nodded deeply as if she had made up her mind.
The cold metal sensation of the steel rack was mercilessly pressed against my supposedly dead left arm. On top of it‚ Rin-chan held her breath and leaned over‚ extending her slender hand.
On the narrow raft. The boundary between me and Rin-chan was melting together in the tense ritual called work.
Every time Rin-chan powerfully wrapped the copper wire loop after loop‚ her hot fingertips traced my motionless skin again and again through the sleeve of my pink parka.
Even though my nerves were supposed to be severed‚ the precise trajectory her fingers drew sent white-blue sparks directly into the depths of my heart—an irresistible illusion that I sank deeply into.
“…Ngh… Nagisa… Your unnecessary body heat… is messing with control…”
Rin-chan’s urgent breath burned hot against my exposed nape.
Her heated white shoulder pulsed like a living thing right before my eyes. The smell of sweat and burnt wax. The heat with nowhere to escape from the boundary where our bodies pressed together slowly scorched the night’s cruel air.
“You’re the one who’s… running the engine at full throttle… My marshmallow is going to melt into real sweet sugar…”
That was the moment.
The end of the finished coil synchronized for a single instant—with miraculous precision—with the magnetic anomaly waves persistently brushing the raft’s surroundings and the faint survival pulse released from Momiji-chan’s splint.
——Zap…!
A small white-blue static electricity burst vividly between Rin-chan’s fingertips and my motionless arm.
“Hyauu…!?”
“…! Induced current…? …Haru‚ factor that surge current in! Minimize the loss!”
“…Accepted. Confirmed perfect resonance with the external magnetic field. …Rin-san‚ Nagisa-san. That ‘heat’ right now is the only flame of life (gasoline) we have obtained on this mud water.”
Touching fingertips. The labyrinth of coils spun layer upon layer on my disabled arm.
My left arm‚ which should have had no sensation‚ was receiving the faint tremble of Rin-chan’s desperate fingertips more deeply and surely than anyone else in the world.
Between us‚ who had lost fire‚ a brand-new white-blue ‘electric heat’ stolen from the world was quietly yet powerfully raising its first cry.
The “coil of life” completed on my motionless arm was roughly bolted into the depths of the engine block by Rin-chan’s hands in a motion resembling prayer.
“…It’s here‚ Rin-chan. My marshmallow is firmly grasping the hottest ‘ticket to the future’ in the world right now…!”
Without caring about dirt or pain‚ I stretched out my trembling right fingertips and forcefully pressed the end of the thin wiring against the engine block—the heart of the emergency generator we had torn from the sinking library.
Right beside the rugged coil fixed to the engine block‚ I gently rested my senseless left arm.
Every time the irregular and ferocious magnetic swells spat out by the ‘black wall’ writhing in the western sky passed through this coil’s labyrinth‚ white-blue sparks of static electricity burst vividly with a “snap‚ snap” right next to my skin.
“…Nagisa‚ keep it fixed like that. Don’t move it even a millimeter. …Haru‚ what’s the synchronization rate between Momiji’s vitals and the system pulse!?”
Rin-chan violently raised and lowered her bare white shoulders and slid her mud-and-oil-covered right hand into the gap of the rusted circuit board. Her slender fingertips forcefully held down the sparks flying from the exposed contacts‚ ignoring even the smell of burning flesh.
“…Currently 98%. With every single beat of Momiji-san’s heart‚ the negative-pressure valleys caused by the magnetic anomalies are being accurately canceled (repaired). …All items‚ please accept!”
In the corner of the raft‚ Haru-kun shielded the blank pages of the waterproof notebook ‘Day 3’ from the raging wind and shouted in a voice close to a scream. His ash-silver wavy hair danced in the small whirlwind generated by the strong magnetic induction‚ beautifully fluttering like silver threads.
“…It’s working… Rin. …Our… heartbeats… are overlapping into one… right here‚ right now…!”
Momiji-chan made her chest exoskeleton (splint) creak with a “…kyuu” more powerfully than ever on the sled.
The faint rhythm her broken life-support device ticked—only a few times per minute—had now begun to function completely and absolutely as the ‘spark plug’ driving this battered raft.
“Kneel before the arrogant ‘rules’ called physical laws. …Exception clause‚ forcibly approved (hacked) right here…!!”
Rin-chan focused every nerve in her fingertips and snapped the contacts together as if crossing the final line.
——VWOOOOOONG!!
The ventilation fan screw‚ which should have had no fire‚ gasoline‚ or even normal electricity supplied to it‚ began to rotate autonomously with a deep bass that resonated in the gut. It was the roar of intellectual rebellion that had forcibly overwritten the world’s malice (magnetic anomalies) into our ‘legs.’
“…Ngh… …warm… Inside my body… there’s heat…”
Overlapping with the screw’s roar‚ Momiji-chan let out a breath filled with relief.
The “coil of life” nestled against my left arm began to emit a cozy warmth along with a faint white-blue glow as it carried Joule heat from electromagnetic induction. It was the ‘temperature of life’ woven by the souls of us four‚ far more certain than the unreliable flame of the lost lighter.
A spring-like flush slowly yet surely returned to Momiji-chan’s white cheeks‚ which had been trembling with an icy evil chill.
“It’s floating!? Rin-chan‚ the raft has become as light as soda bubbles‚ and it’s super warm!!”
I laughed‚ turning even the sharp pain of the AC adapter tourniquet biting into my right leg’s flesh into a “secret ingredient” that colored this supreme warmth and acceleration.
The hacked screw turned the brownish sludge into “pure white spray‚” and the once-heavy hull accelerated as if gliding across the water surface.
“…Theoretical top speed‚ five kilometers per hour. However—the source (source) of this heat and fuel is infinite as long as this world continues.”
Haru-kun added the final powerful stroke to the waterproof notebook with a trembling hand‚ as if offering a prayer. On that blank page he had defended inside his mud-covered parka‚ a new ‘physical law’ that would repaint this world’s cruel principles was now defined.
‘Day 3: Establishment of autonomous navigation by magnetic force. Abandoning fire‚ directly converting the world’s malice into power and heat. The history of a single individual (structure) has completely escaped the system’s management definition as of this moment.’
A disabled arm that had lost sensation. An immobile leg bound by a tourniquet biting into flesh. And a girl burning with high fever who should have simply waited quietly for death.
Our ‘Deluxe Mudwater Float’ had connected all those missing pieces with circuits of rebellion and now accelerated across the dark night sea‚ trailing a white-blue tail of static electricity.
Embracing the heat of its new heart to its chest.
We had forcibly “repaired” the predetermined formula called despair and stepped powerfully toward the horizon on the other side of the horizon—the festival ground belonging only to us.
“…Nfu—. Hey‚ Rin-chan. This ‘Deluxe Mudwater Float’ has class-changed into the most luxurious ‘moving tatami passenger ship’ in the world‚ hasn’t it?”
Feeling the heavy vibration of the screw steadily yet powerfully kicking the water against my back‚ I sat deeply on the cold floor plate of the steel rack.
The ‘black wall’ towering in the western sky was still ominously pulsing‚ trying to delete us as always. But what was driving us now was that very ‘world’s malice.’ Turning harassment into gasoline and moving forward—we might have become the most wicked heroes ever.
“…For a passenger ship‚ the interior is nothing but scrap iron and mud. …But the thrust is completely stable. Magnetic pulse synchronization rate (sync rate) maintained at 99.9%.”
Rin-chan let a satisfied smile spread across her mud-covered face beside the coil where white-blue sparks of induced current crackled instead of an engine exhaust.
Her profile was flushed red enough to be visible even in the night darkness‚ and the rising heat shimmered like a fantastical mist under the white-blue static electricity. That fearless smile proudly pierced the night’s abyss as the “proof of the ruler” that had brought us this far.
“99.9 percent! Haru-kun‚ can we just accept that as basically 100 percent now!?”
I turned to look at Haru-kun‚ who was adding to the new definition of Day 3.
“…Strictly speaking‚ a 0.1% uncertain factor remains. However… in the current situation where we have incorporated this ‘world’s bug’ into the equation‚ no higher precision exists. …As a special case‚ I accept it as 100% success.”
In the corner of the raft‚ Haru-kun quietly closed the waterproof notebook as if performing a ritual. The blue light spilling from the hacking engine clung to his ash-silver hair‚ gently coloring his intellectual gray eyes.
The fingertips Haru-kun took out from inside his parka gently touched the cushioning material of my former shoe—the ‘Nagisa Hover’—tied to the raft’s edge. There was no longer any impatience or despair that had driven him. Only the quiet pride of a recorder who had rewritten this hopeless world into an “acceptable” form.
“…Hehe. …My heartbeat… becoming… the sound of the ship moving… feels… really… ticklish…”
On the sled‚ Momiji-chan made her chest exoskeleton (splint) creak with a “…kyuu” in clear comfort and stretched her slender fingertips toward the distant night sky.
The rhythm of her faint vitals was now perfectly controlling the ignition timing of the magnetic engine. Momiji-chan was no longer just a ‘sacred domain’ that needed protecting. She had become the most important ‘clock (system clock)’ carrying this mismatched single individual (structure) into tomorrow.
“Momiji-chan‚ I feel ticklish too! Look‚ every time the engine turns‚ my marshmallow arm gets all warm like ‘warm popcorn’!”
I gently lifted the left arm I had been nestling against the life-giving coil with my right hand and looked around at each of my companions’ faces one by one.
The white-blue static electricity leaking from the coil brightly illuminated the four of us—mud-covered‚ wounded‚ yet with the brightest expressions—like the screen of a tiny movie theater.
“Even without fire‚ we can create heat. Even without electricity‚ we can light up the darkness. …We’ll keep rewriting rules with our own hands.”
Rin-chan declared proudly and gently yet firmly grasped my right hand’s fingers. Her hand was still hot and trembled slightly from the remnants of the extreme work‚ but the certain body heat transmitted from it repaired my heart hotter and stronger than any bonfire in the world.
The ‘Deluxe Mudwater Float’ that had discarded the old-era concept of fuel and turned the world’s bugs into its own wings and heart raced toward the infinite horizon‚ trailing a white-blue tail of static electricity across the heavy night sea.
What would come into view next—the last remnants of land‚ or the dawn of a new world no one had ever seen?
My excitement index had already risen to heights no instrument could measure.
“All right! Then it’s time for the festival’s main dish—my ‘stomach repair operation’—to finally boot up!!”
My full-throttle appetite cry echoed across the dark sea like bursting soda bubbles.
Because our voyage of rebellion (hacking) against the physical laws had only just begun.
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