Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 1===

The island of Ishana floated atop the ocean in isolation. Within its white stone walls that glimmer in the sunlight were green fields and blue rooftops. All sorts of vividly colored trees enclosed the island and a slightly elevated hill watched over both the town and the sparkling sea.

Ishana was a beautiful island. However, that painting-like beauty was currently lying in ruins.

The black giant that had fallen from the sky, Nox Nyctores Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi.

That ominous behemoth had crushed roughly half the town beneath its body and reduced an uncountable number of buildings to rubble in an instant. The city was now a hellscape, and it showed no sign of ever returning to normalcy. Ishana benefited from the wealth of hidden knowledge and history collected over the years within the Mage's Guild and the entire island was concealed by a magical barrier. Because of that, it had been known as ‘the safest city in the world.’

Now, it was the exact opposite.

This city, which a fragment of the Black Beast had set foot in, had become the next destination of that living calamity that terrorized the world. Daily reports indicated that the Black Beast and the vestige that constituted a part of it were slowly but surely making their way across Eurasia, heading straight toward the isolated island.

This was a lone island in the middle of the ocean. Ishana was now 'the most dangerous city in the world.'

Within the most dangerous city in the world, a calm and clean wind unbefitting of its ominous title was blowing through the streets. The air in Ishana was refreshing, as it always had been. That was partially because of the powerful barrier that kept all the Seithr from the outside world out, but also because the dense mass of Seithr brought in by the fragment of the Black Beast had been frantically purified by the hard work of the mages who stood at the pinnacle of the Mage's Guild, the Ten Sages.

However, very few people knew that in truth, the presence of one particular girl contributed massively to the Seithr removal operation. Celica A. Mercury, the girl who had quietly inserted herself into the role of Seithr cleaner, breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the wind suddenly stroke her cheek.

The end of her ponytail, tied high on her head, brushed her ear as she gently narrowed her deep brown eyes, the color of wet soil. Her cheeks, slightly dirty from dust and grime, were faintly flushed from fatigue. She wiped her forehead with her hand, brushing away her weariness like sweat. This was no time to complain about being a bit tired.
"...Okay, let's get this done."
Squeezing her hands tight to encourage herself, Celica set off at a jog. Behind her, a female silhouette far taller than Celica herself followed along.

It was Nirvana, with her sturdy, clearly non-human body and robotic movements. Celica and Nirvana were out in the middle of Ishana, but who could say how accurate it was to call it 'the middle of Ishana' anymore? This area was a little special. It was the space between the city of Ishana... and what used to be the city of Ishana.

Just one street over was a mountain of rubble and dust that could no longer be called a city. Atop it all was the massive, black, human-shaped weapon that had made about half of Ishana unlivable.

The Nox Nyctores Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi.

Celica couldn't help but get a gloomy expression whenever she thought of that name.

The Mage's Guild's ultimate weapon, capable of repelling the Black Beast with just one strike. Celica didn't know much more about the black colossus than that, but it had crushed many plants, trees, and even people along with the buildings and streets.
Scores of people died. Countless were injured, and many more were left to grieve.
"Celica-dono."

Celica jerked her chin up as someone called out to her from one step behind her, shaking her out of it.

Keeping her feet moving, Celica looked over her shoulder. Behind her stood Valkenhayn, who had removed his working jacket to reveal the fine white shirt he wore beneath it.

"You seem to be doing less than well..."

Looking down at her with his far taller build, his discerning eyes were every bit as sharp and severe as when he was in his wolf form. Nevertheless, his eyes also revealed the sort of kindly reliability that showed he's always ready to catch her if she were to stumble and fall.

"Oh, I'm alright. I just kind of zoned out."

"That's perfectly understandable. You've been running around like this since last evening; it seems you're getting tired."

Breathing a heavy sigh, Valkenhayn knitted his brows together seriously. He surveyed their surroundings with grim eyes.

Even though the buildings around them were hardly damaged, there was no sign of the usual Ishana to be seen. Men and women wearing Mage's Guild uniforms were rushing back and forth across the streets, tending to people who had been rescued from collapsed buildings and trying to transport the severely wounded out of the area.

People were lined up on the roadside awaiting treatment, with those who couldn't stand squatting or sitting down among the uneven terrain. Take-Mikazuchi had fallen with the Black Beast's head just last evening. By the time night had completely fallen, the entire island was illuminated by artificial lights as everyone who could still move participated in the rescue operation.

The rescue operation was still underway now, and Jubei, Hakumen, and the Kakas were pitching in as well. With hardly any food or sleep, Celica had spent the whole night going around casting healing magic on injured people on the side of the road.

"It would do no one any good if you were to faint, Celica-dono. Go and get some rest already."

"Thanks. I really am okay though, no need to worry about me."

"Celica-dono..."

She wasn't going to listen no matter how many times he said it. Valkenhayn was getting fed up with trying to convince the stubborn girl, but Celica refused with a strong look in her eyes.

"Please, let me do absolutely everything I can. There are still so many injured people; I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway."

"...Just a little while longer. If you try to overwork yourself much more, I will drag you back home."

Valkenhayn grimaced as he reluctantly gave his consent, and Celica responded with a smile like a flower's first bloom.

"Got it!"

Emphasizing her words with a vigorous nod, Celica's ponytail jumped around her head as she ran forward.

She went to a woman crouching wearily beneath a street lamp and wasted no time in kneeling down and healing her, starting from a particularly nasty shoulder injury.

"Unbelievable..."

Just how stubborn could those sisters possibly be? Valkenhayn groaned with exasperation and a hint of resentment, then went to kneel down next to Celica. Celica gently touched the woman's shoulder with her hand sheathed in a faint light.

As Valkenhayn was handling the lighter wounds on the woman's limbs, he couldn't help but admire Celica. The efficacy of her healing magic was astonishing, no matter how many times he saw it. Without so much as a sound, wounds disappeared like they were melting into the light.

"That should do it. I'm sure it's still going to feel uncomfortable for a while, but your shoulder is alright now. I healed the cut on your forehead and the bruise on your back for you too. The smaller injuries are still there though, so take it easy!"

Celica gave a sheepish smile, thinking that she would rather have healed her all the way down to the last scrape.

The woman thanked them profusely as she got up and walked away. Celica saw her off, then took a quick breath and headed off to the next person in need.

She turned and called over her shoulder as she set off.

"Hey, Valkenhayn-san... those people are still following us, aren't they?"

The people she was referring to were a pair of men standing on a street corner where some injured people were sitting, staring straight in Celica's direction. She glanced at them with a bewildered look on her face. Wearing blue and white uniforms, not bothering to lend a hand to the people trudging down the street or the guild members running around with first aid kits, they were completely focused on watching Celica and Valkenhayn.

"...It certainly seems so."

Valkenhayn answered in a low voice as his eyebrows knitted together. They were what you would call 'lookouts.' They kept on observing Celica, Valkenhayn, and Nirvanas' every move.

"What Hakumen did likely ruffled some feathers. After the rampage he went on, it's not surprising that they want to keep us on a short leash even in this dire situation."

Valkenhayn's bulky chest heaved beneath his fine white shirt as he let out a sigh.
The soldiers of the Orbis Librarius Norma had recently tried to detain Celica and her friends, but Hakumen single-handedly laid them all out like a gale scattering a pile of leaves. The image of a demon clad in white mowing down an entire squadron with one swing of his nodachi was probably permanently engraved into the memories of the soldiers present right now.

"Hakumen-dono is likely being followed by a detail several times larger than the one following us."

"But we aren't going to do anything funny in a situation like this..."

"Sound logic like that won't dissuade the likes of them... Nine was able to work it out with the Ten Sages and keep us from being arrested, but we'll have to accept certain limits on our freedom."

"I guess so..."

Unsatisfied, Celica pursed her lips. 
She understood why they were being watched and she was willing to put up with it. She also understood that the people following her didn't particularly want to do it either, and that they were just following orders.

Even so, Celica cast her eyes around from left to right with open dissatisfaction on her face.

"Can't they at least lend a hand while they watch us?"

There were lots of people in the vicinity who could certainly use some help, but the men following them were flawlessly ignoring every single one of them, as if they didn't even realize that they were there. It was unacceptable.

"I mean, I know those OLN folks see us as just a bunch of people they've never met living on some island in the middle of nowhere, but still."

"The OLN... that Orbis Librarius Norma or whatever?"

"Yeah, them. It wouldn't kill them to have a little sympathy for once. Even if you say something straight to one of them, they pretend like you aren't there!"

Crossing her arms indignantly in a rare display of anger, Celica suddenly remembered something and looked up at Valkenhayn.

"Hey, didn't Onee-chan get called to go somewhere by the OLN? I hope she's okay..."

"...What do you mean, called to go somewhere?"
 
Valkenhayn answered her question with a question, his face grim. Immediately understanding what he meant with that inquiry, Celica shrugged and forced a smile.

"I just hope she won't lose her temper and go overboard again, that's all."

Nine had half-destroyed Ishana's capitol building, and then Take-Mikazuchi's fall had finished it off. Valkenhayn's not-yet-visible wrinkles were growing deeper by the minute.

"It's well within reason to think she might."

"...Yeah, you're right..."
The place that the Orbis Librarius Norma and the Mage's Guild had summoned Nine to was the guild's miraculously undamaged council room. If Nine went berserk and blasted her way out of the building again like she had done with the capitol building, it wouldn't be so lucky a second time. Sending a prayer up to the sky beyond the barrier that that wouldn't happen, Celica hurried over to the next injured person in need of her help.