Editing City Series:Volume3b Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 1===

A clear morning sky covered Hong Kong.

It was such a deep blue that not even the white outlines of the clouds could blend into it.

Hong Kong’s sky had not been this way before. This was a pure sky, unpolluted by shimmering heat or smoke.

A single Nein Engel looked up into that sky.

It was Akira.

She slowly walked through the nearly abandoned streets.

Her feet took her from Kowloon’s administrative district to the Yard’s base.

She had not been into work for nine days, but she had not told anyone she would be starting today.

“I can’t believe this…”

She lowered her gaze, but her view was unobstructed because most of the buildings had been destroyed and shortened. She could see the previously hidden mountains at the center of the Kowloon Peninsula.

The green of vegetation did not cover the mountains.

Their dry earthen color contrasted with the blue sky above.

They had experienced landslides from the earthquake during the Sixth Divine Punishment War nine days before.

“…”

Akira remained silent and touched the collapsible Device hanging from her waist.

The metal blade felt cold.

“An Octave of 280,000, hm?”

That was the highest Octave she had managed to control that morning.

…''I’ve gotten even worse than last night.

“Do I have a cold?”

Her carefree tone was belied by her expression.

Her face was stiff around the eyebrows.

When she noticed, she placed a finger between her eyebrows and sighed.

She shook her head lightly and moved her hand up to her forehead.

“Do I have a fever? I did go to sleep covered in water last night.”

She sounded like she was trying to convince someone.

“This isn’t good. If I do have a cold…”

She stopped walking and looked up into the sky with her hand still on her forehead.

“If I do have a cold…”

She repeated herself and moved her hand slightly to cover her eyes.

She then fell silent.

She stood in the empty street while covering her skyward gaze and not speaking a word. She did not say a thing as if waiting for time to pass before her eyes.

She took several breaths as silence filled her surroundings.

That silence was first broken by the quiet sound of someone clearing their throat.

Movement soon followed.

Her hand moved before her mouth. She lowered the hand covering her eyes.

However, those eyes were closed.

She was not looking at anything.

She still did not open her eyes, but she kept her head lowered and rather roughly turned around as if shaking something off of her.

“I’m so stupid.”

She took a breath.

“If I want the day off, I can use a vacation day.”

She began to walk once more, but in the opposite direction from before.

She continued talking to herself, but she only seemed to complaint about her workplace, such as improvements needed in the Yard’s labor policies or the drop in quality at the Chinese restaurant. She complained the longest about the pay.

Each time she spoke, her pace picked up.

“I really am stupid.”

She was more running than walking now, but she did not use her wings.

Her Tuning power had weakened, so she could no longer read the Lives of the wind and she could not fly. If she misread those Lives even slightly, she would move her wings wrong and lose all of her speed.

She ran through the empty streets like a normal human and the Device hanging from her waist made a sound each time she moved.

It was a metallic sound.

“…”

She stopped talking, but she did not stop her legs. She held the Device in her hand to keep it from making so much noise.

The metallic sound vanished.

This created a world of silence only broken by footsteps and breathing.

Her running feet leaped from the ground.

Her heavy breathing sounded loudly.

For a brief moment, she looked back.

As if to prove the silence of the city, she could only see the broken buildings and blue sky.

There was no one there.

Only then did she finally slow her pace. She slowly faced forward again and brought her racing feet down to a walk.

The only change from before was the hand holding her Device.

“I can’t believe this.”

She looked forward and saw her apartment building.

She had already arrived at the bottom of the old black metal stairs.

She took a few heavy breaths before saying more.

“This isn’t a cold, is it?”

She was speaking to herself.

A few seconds later, she nodded as if deciding on something.

With that as her signal, she slowly ascended the stairs one step at a time.

“…?”

She stopped halfway up.

“Someone’s…there?”

She sensed someone on the second story corridor.

She cleared her ears and saw a slight yellow Live.

…''Who is it?

She moved her legs to climb the rest of the stairs.

Her eyes were directed straight forward and her gaze stabbed down the corridor and in front of her room.

She saw a single figure there.

“Gunmal?”

When the person turned toward her voice, it turned out to be someone else.

“Akira. …Yeah, sorry about this, but it’s only me.”

It was Kouga.

Just like always, he wore his blond hair in a pompadour and wore a Hawaiian shirt, but she did see some slight exhaustion on his face.

Akira asked this unexpected visitor a question.

“Wh-what is it? …A-and more importantly, you were okay?”

“Yeah, I was just fine. I don’t die even when you kill me, after all.”

“That’s true, but…”

“What are your plans for today, Akira?”

“Eh?”

“Are you heading to the Yard? You are wearing your uniform.”

She hesitated to answer that, but she soon did so with a smile.

“Yes. I figure there are a lot of jobs for a Tuner after what happened to Hong Kong. Everyone’s going to be in trouble if I don’t get back to work soon, right?”

Kouga answered her smile with a serious expression.

“The Yard was almost entirely wiped out.”

“…”

“There are a lot of jobs for you.”

“Eh?”

She tilted her head and he crossed his arms.

“It’s pretty bad. The injuries and destroyed houses are no joke. We need you to get started healing all the destruction that hasn’t settled into place yet.”

“Oh, that’s what you meant.”

“Eh?”

“I thought we were going to start fighting again so soon.”

“Of course not.” Kouga smiled bitterly. “Didn’t I tell you? The Yard was almost entirely wiped out. We couldn’t put up a fight even if we wanted to.”

“…I see.”

“During that thing everyone’s calling the Sixth Divine Punishment War, most of the Yard made an attack on Hong Kong Cave.”

“But the Nein Engels weren’t there. I know that much.”

“Most of them were caught on the way back to the base.”

“Eh?”

Kouga sounded disinterested as he answered.

“You can only get to Hong Kong Island through the undersea tunnel or by ferry, right? Well, an earthquake split that undersea tunnel apart.”

“…”

“Pretty much everyone but the unit that took the ferry was wiped out.”

“Wiped out?”

“It’s best not to think about it.”

“Wait! Wh-what about the General!?”

“He was one of the lucky survivors. …Huh? Hadn’t you heard? He was the one that arranged for your hospitalization.”

''Come to think of it, I did hear that when I was released,'' she thought.

She was panicking a bit, so she sighed to help calm herself.

“Then what is the Yard doing now?”

“All police-related stations have been automatically locked down. We’re still on Stage 2 Alert.”

“Then you’re on the civil team?”

“Because I’m no use in a fight.”

“That’s not something to laugh about.”

“Sorry.”

“Well, whatever. …So where’s Rin?”

“Oh, about that. That’s why I’m here.” He looked up. “Can you heal her? It’s on the General’s orders.”

She answered with a question of her own.

“Can’t Rin…heal herself?”

“Eh?”

“What do you mean ‘eh’?”

“Oh, well, I just didn’t expect to hear you say that.”

“Wh-what do you mean? I was just asking. So has she not woken up yet?”

“She has. She did yesterday.”

“But she can’t heal herself?”

“It’s a pretty serious injury and the Live has settled in pretty bad, so you’ll have to find a slight disturbance to start with…”

“That’s not easy, you know?”

“That’s why we’re asking you.”

“…I suppose so.”

She nodded and felt her heart begin to race.

…''This isn’t good.

In her Tune training that morning, she had only been able to control an Octave of about 280,000.

Rin could control up to 320,000.

If Rin could not do it, there was no way Akira could now. Not to mention that Akira’s power was vanishing as time passed.

“I wonder why.”

“Why what?”

“Oh, just talking to myself.”

…''Why is it going down? If it’s because it isn’t fun…

“Maybe there isn’t enough tension.”

“For the boss? I seriously doubt that.”

“No, not that. I just can’t hold a conversation today…”

She started to say something more and nodded.

…''You usually escape this kind of decline by getting desperate enough.

She was tasked with healing a serious injury.

She briefly recalled when she had seen J-Gun die.

“…”

…''Am I losing my confidence? Then I just have to get it back, right?

''That’s pretty cheap reasoning, but it has to be right,'' she added.

“Okay. Then let’s get to the hospital.”

“Eh? Really?”

“What’s that look for?”

“Well, you sounded like you didn’t want to go.”

“What good is a Tuner that can’t Tune? You have your motorcycle, right?”

With that, she lightly tapped the Device at her waist.

It no longer made the metallic sound that had been hurting her ears before.