Editing City Series:Volume2 Chapter 7 (section)

===Part 1===

The Savoy Hotel was far from silent.

The alarm Fir had activated filled it with hysteric noise.

It pierced through and echoed off the entire building, gathered in the lobby, and finally reached Ralf’s ears.

“What a racket.”

He gave a sigh after finishing off his fleeing prey. He shook his head to loosen up his shoulders and Overlossed the rifle in his left hand. He grabbed a shotgun instead.

Finally, he took a step from the center of the lobby.

He made his way to the hallway leading to the Savoy’s first floor. More accurately, he made his way to the fire shutter blocking the way.

He used his real left arm to swap out the shotgun’s magazine.

“There’s no point in running, you know?”

He cocked it with one arm. After sending the first round to the chamber, he opened the magazine and loaded another round. He swung the gun to close the magazine and aim at the shutter with a single smooth motion.

With a loud gunshot, several small holes appeared in the pure white shutter.

“Hm.”

He nodded and took a few steps back. He lightly swung the shotgun forward and back to cock it. The used cartridge was ejected and fell to the floor where it scorched the carpet.

Another gunshot rang out.

Another group of holes appeared like a swarm of ants, but over a wider area this time.

Without a pause, he cocked it again and fired the final shot.

He Overlossed the shotgun at the same time and held a submachine gun in his left hand instead. He fired it.

The bullets had less penetrative power, but when they struck the fire shutter, they connected and widened the previous holes until they became a single large hole.

The alarm grew even louder.

Ralf ignored it, slipped through the hole in the shutter, and looked around.

“Where did she run off to?”

He needlessly spoke his question aloud and pushed his sunglasses up his nose. Beyond the round black lenses, his blue eyes looked to the floor. His gaze was sharp and still.

“I see.”

The thick Savoy carpet clearly told him where his target had run.

He turned toward the dining hall.

After looking at the glass door from the side and entering, he found a large open space.

The dining hall was actually a world-famous English restaurant known as Simpson’s. A tie was required when dining there and it had the formality and ambiance to match.

Of course, no one was eating there now.

The wooden tables, wooden chairs, lace tablecloths, and everything else were covered with the scorch marks of Ashing.

Ralf had killed and destroyed everything here.

“The roast beef was pretty good, but just that’s not enough.”

While giving a completely different comment from the day before yesterday, he looked around the half-ruined restaurant. He searched for his target. He Overrode behind the tables, beyond the decorative plants, on the other side of the curtains, and everywhere else as he searched.

He could not find her.

“?”

He frowned, but then he heard a noise.

It came from the kitchen in the back of the restaurant. It sounded like something small falling over.

It was enough of a sound to warrant walking that way.

He pulled out the submachine gun magazine and threw it aside. He pulled a new one from his pocket and slammed it in. His eyes were trained on the kitchen the entire time.

He started walking as soon as the magazine clicked into place. The bottom of his minister’s clothing fluttered behind him.

After a few steps, he reached the counter between restaurant and counter.

The kitchen beyond the counter was large. Just to be safe, he took a step back and walked from left to right along the counter.

Once he reached the open door, he twisted his head to loosen his shoulders again. He continued doing it for a while but finally Overlossed his action and continued on.

“Now, then.”

He took a breath and quickly entered the kitchen.

He moved silently, pressed his back against the wall next to the door, and searched for his enemy. He could see past the kitchen counter on the right, but not the one on the left.

He saw no sign of anyone.

But then he heard another noise.

“!”

He looked over and saw an open door in the back of the kitchen that led to the back entrance. The wind or something was moving the door enough to tap against the wall. That was the small sound he had heard before and what had led him to enter the kitchen.

…''Did she get away!?

He briefly wondered if he had been led here and subconsciously started walking between the two counters.

But then he saw something odd as the door moved.

It was a cat.

He guessed it was a pet of one of the guests he had killed because he saw a Siamese cat with black paws. It was playing with the door by pushing it into the wall.

He had not seen it before because the kitchen counter had been in the way.

He reflexively aimed his gun at it and smiled bitterly.

“What a cute trap.”

Had his target thought this cat would distract him with the noise?

He lightly poked at his head with the grip of the submachine gun in his left hand.

He started to take another step but suddenly stopped.

“…?”

His eyes were focused on the door the cat pushed with its front paws. He stared at the metal door.

The door was polished like a mirror and it reflected the kitchen from an angle he could not see. It showed the area behind the left kitchen counter.

The large door reflected a blue form.

The reflection was far from perfect, but he recognized it. It was the Scotland Yard uniform worn by the girl who had escaped down the hallway. There was no mistaking it.

“I see.”

He Closed his feelings so she would not notice. Instead, he made a smile so large even he noticed.

He must have surprised the cat because it stopped pushing on the door and moved away. It looked afraid and it escaped to Ralf’s right with its fur standing on end.

He did not pursue the cat.

He held the submachine gun in his left arm and made his way to the left kitchen counter.

He moved in an instant.

He jumped up on the counter, aimed at the corner she was hiding behind, and pulled the trigger.

He fired again and again.

Shell cases flew and smoke scattered from the gun while wood splinters and metal fragments burst from the counter. Even if it was only a submachine gun, it could still pierce a two centimeter steel panel at close range. The bullets half-destroyed the counter and turned what hid behind it into red pieces.

The scattering tempo was eight per second. The music ended after just over two seconds.

Ralf immediately threw away the magazine and loaded the next.

Meanwhile, the blue uniform was thrown from behind the counter and into the wall. He looked to see her Ash…except she did not.

“!?”

The blue uniform came apart and he saw its contents roll out.

It was filled with hunks of flesh.

However, the body wearing the uniform had something it should not have.

A femur grew from the top of the white and red flesh like a head.

“It can’t be!” he shouted.

At the same time, he heard a sharp voice from his right.

“Freeze! I’ll blow your head off!”

He moved just his eyes to look over.

He found the girl pointing a handgun at him from behind the right kitchen counter. Her naked upper body stuck up above the counter and held the gun.

“Sorry, but everything in the uniform was edible meat.”

“Hm. But I didn’t see anyone back there before…”

He did not avoid looking at Fir’s body.

“Was that cat you? Come to think of it, I feel like I’ve seen it before.”

“That’s right. We met in St. James’s Park.”

“Oh, that’s right. That’s right.”

He nodded and seemed oddly calm.

The girl aiming a gun at him blatantly frowned at his attitude.

“At any rate, put down that dangerous thing you’re holding there. Don’t try to shoot because I’ll be faster. Yours is in your left hand after all.”

“I see the Yard makes up for not using guns by knowing how to handle an armed opponent.”

He smiled bitterly.

“But it doesn’t go beyond that.”

“What!?”

She grew more defensive and he laughed.

“Did you not notice I haven’t Overridden my right arm this whole time?”

“!”

She stared at him as his body appeared more clearly.

There was nothing inside his right sleeve. The false arm he had shown off on the terrace was gone.

His gaze turned to the kitchen entrance he had used.

The girl looked there too.

“It seems setting up this trick paid off.”

He focused on the kitchen entrance.

At some point his metal right arm had appeared on the floor there.

It held a rifle. Its aim was not perfect, but it was pointed at his final target.

“Crap!” shouted the girl.

Ralf’s face twisted into a slight smile.

And he Opened a powerful Task.

…''Shoot her!

The false arm reacted to his will and moved.

It squeezed the trigger and fired.

The girl’s white naked body was blown away. She was knocked into the air and slammed into the wall. She knocked kitchen tools to the floor and collapsed.

“…Ah.”

The bullet had not been fatal, but it had torn into her side.

Regardless, it was still a serious wound.

Ralf looked down on the silent girl from atop the counter.

Her blood pooled on the cement kitchen floor. Her white skin and scarlet blood contrasted each other nicely and seemed to give off a scent.

She was no longer moving. The shock may have knocked her out.

“You put up a good fight, just like a final target should.”

With that, he jumped down from the counter, started toward his false arm by the entrance, and sighed.

“In the end, there’s no one to save you in times like this.”

He picked up his false arm and slowly stuck it into his right sleeve. He gently closed his eyes and attached it as if twisting his shoulder.

After a metallic sound, the contents of his right sleeve moved.

Satisfied by the sensation, he aimed the rifle still held by the false right arm. This time, his aim was accurate. He targeted her head.

“Amen.”

His eyebrows twisted a bit and he silently tightened his grip on the trigger.

But just before he pulled it, an impossible voice stopped him.

“Don’t give in like that, holy man.”

The voice came from the restaurant beyond the kitchen entrance.

“!”

He turned around and saw someone who should not have been there.

He saw the target he had only just killed. He saw the man known as the Inspector.