Editing City Series:Volume6e Chapter7 (section)

===Part 10===

Hazel crouched to Berger’s left, looked at his face in profile, and asked a question.

“Um, Berger?”

She waited three seconds, but he didn’t respond.

“Um,” she repeated. “Aren’t you going to answer, Berger?”

Still nothing.

She sighed and let her shoulders droop before gabbing his left ear and tugging.

“Ber – ger!”

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“Ow, ow, ow! What is wrong with you? The Wild Hund’s ears don’t stand up, so stop pulling like that.”

He brushed off her hand and she smiled.

“So you ''can'' hear me. Then you need to answer. I have something important to discuss with you.”

She kept smiling, but he looked less than pleased.

“Something important? You mean your decision, right?”

“Oh? If you knew what I wanted, why were you ignoring me?”

“Oh, come on.” He jerked his chin toward her face without any change of expression. “Take a look at your face. I can tell you’ve already made up your mind.”

“Eh?” She set down Rein König and touched her face.

“See what I mean?” said Berger. “That bashful old fart was afraid to make you choose, but you’ve already got the look of someone who’s itching to get started.”

He was right. The smile she felt on her face was just like that.

…''I’m just so happy I can do this the way I most wanted to.

When she thought back on everything that had happened – especially what had happened in Borderson – the smile grew.

“If I do this, I can stop the Wheel of Destiny…and everyone can stay almost entirely unchanged.”

She removed her hand from her face and moved in front of Berger while still crouched. She tilted her head.

“But are you worried for me?”

“Course I am.”

“But I’m not as dumb as you think I am.”

“I’d noticed. Your way dumber than I ever could’ve imagined.”

Once he said that, Corelle turned around from the ring of people.

She looked to Hazel and spoke with some exasperation on her face.

“I hate to interrupt your flirting, but have you made your decision? If Hazel is going to the past, then you’re going with her, aren’t you, Berger?”

Elrich nodded.

“Most likely, the German Tons placed inside them will react when the Spacetime Tons are tuned and returned to the ley lines. The History Tons in there will resonate with the Spacetime Tons and they might tear you apart if you don’t travel through time with them.”

“Looks like you get to enjoy a nice trip through time together,” said Corelle.

But Berger shook his head and frowned.

“That isn’t happening. I don’t think those are inside me anymore.”

His tone and his words wiped the smile from Hazel’s face.

She took a breath, lowered her head just a bit, and muttered, “So he noticed.”

“Yes,” she said out loud. “During our Live Session, I swapped out the German Lives inside him that weren’t affected by the serum with the ones inside me that were affected by the serum.”

“Did you think the Wild Hund shouldn’t be bound by anything? Not by this country and not by you?”

She nodded, bit her lower lip, and looked away from him.

She looked to the Sylphide’s cockpit so far above. That cockpit was built for the Messiah and it only held one.

“I think this is the happiest choice. It just requires some patience from me. So…”

She lowered her gaze to look Berger in the eye.

She smiled and then reached out her hand to take his.

“I will do everything I can to make it work. Once I end up in the past, I will write letters to you in the AIF. And when I return to the present, I will go to Borderson and call myself Lehrer. And…”

“And then go to Hamburg last month?”

“Yes,” she said firmly, squeezing his hand. “But I don’t intend to sacrifice myself. I will go to the past, return to the present, and then do all the things I wanted to do after the war.”

She kept his hand in hers and asked a question of him and the others behind him.

“Maybe I’m being selfish, but are any of you willing to help me?”