Editing City Series:Volume4a Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 1===

'''7:11 PM

One of Osaka’s landmarks was a tower known as the Tsutenkaku.

It was about one hundred meters tall, it towered above the streets of houses and shops, and no thought had been given to the danger of it collapsing. There was a small plaza around its base, but that was it.

The hundred meter tower sat right alongside people’s homes.

The structure brought the word “local” to mind.

Currently, a boy stood on the tile-covered stone pavement below the Tsutenkaku.

It was Hizaka Shoui.

He drank a can of coffee while looking to the city lights shining into the dark night.

He was waiting for a girl.

That girl was Yamashita Taeko who he had met at Prefectural #2’s front gate.

“Later, let’s meet up at that place called the Tsutenkaku. I’ll treat ya to some food once the meetin’s over.”

He had been obediently following her casual suggestion, but…

“It’s been almost two hours now. And curfew was at seven…”

He looked up, wishing he had walked around Osaka for a bit instead.

Far overhead near the top of the Tsutenkaku, the bottom of the observation deck looked like a dark shadow.

He had not looked up at that tower for a long time.

Even after two years, Osaka remained the same as in his faint memories.

Not long before, he had learned that it was his own situation that had changed so drastically.

…''I didn’t stick with that training for two years because I wanted to…

It was true he had gained permission to enter the Mountain during the winter two years before, even though he had not been in high school yet.

His training should have ended half a year after that, but for some reason, he had repeated the same training four times.

That previous Chancellor’s Officers member may have been right that it simply was not for him.

Still looking up, Shoui leaned his back against one of the pillars forming the Tsutenkaku’s base.

He brought a hand to the bandanna on his forehead.

There was no phantom pain, but it would appear if he tried to remember.

Everything from that time would come rushing back if he thought back to what had happened one night during the winter two years before.

“…”

It had all begun two years ago.

It had been a night with a chilly wind when he had made Yuuki Yuuki, history’s youngest Koto Guardian and Koto Chancellor, kill someone

It had been a cold night.

Everyone had been holed up in their homes, the only lights in the streets had come from windows, and a silent liveliness had seemed to highlight one’s existence like a form of shadow puppetry.

The same had been true of the shopping district in front of Nara’s Kofuku-ji.

There was a park there containing a large lake called Sarusawa Lake.

During the day, the locals would have been resting in the park, but it was simply an empty space with a lake during the night.

A wind had carried a sobering chill as it had raced across the lake and through the park.

Shoui had been with Yuuki there.

He had sat on the stone bank of the lake while she wore a red blazer.

They had not been looking each other in the eye and Shoui had been holding his reddened right cheek.

“Do you really need to slap me just because I touched your butt, Yuuki?”

He had called her name, but the intellectual face behind her glasses had not turned his way.

That was due to the headphones in her ears.

A terribly refreshing holy sound had escaped them.

Based on the volume he could hear, it had to be easily over an Octave of 320,000.

“The Geist Middle Rhythm…”

His words had trailed off and vanished because he had noticed the many lights floating around her.

The lights had been the size of a fist.

Those cool, bluish-white fluorescent lights had flown around her, landed on her shoulders, hair, and hands, left her again, and continued to dance about.

The light had illuminated her black hair, white skin, and red clothing, making it all stand out in the darkness.

He had briefly watched in fascination, but then he had come to his senses.

“Y-Yuuki, that’s too many spirits… If you’re dragged in…”

She had not turned toward him, so he had sighed with a look of exasperation.

Her lips had begun to sing a refreshing song as if his sigh had been a sign.

—''Yuuki – Geist Middle – Take – Speak with the Dead – Hit.

''The winter cries out frigidly

''Someone cries in loneliness

:''They speak words yet nothing is said

:''They speak Words yet nothing is said

::''They simply wait for the ice to melt

::''They draw near and never give up

As he listened to her Words, Shoui had looked to the lights floating around her.

“They draw near and never give up, huh? That fits perfectly for the spirits in Koto that can’t rest in peace, but in a way, those are really dark Words.”

She had finally turned around at that.

“That can’t be helped. My Words were originally for an ice god.”

“…You could hear me?”

“I could hear all the awful things you said about me.”

“Is that so?” He had rested his head in his hand. “It’s weird that you can communicate with the spirits of the dead without using specialized Words.”

“You’re the weird one, Shoui-kun. What with being a Dis-Worder and all.”

He had shrugged at that.

“I don’t really mind.”

“But it is weird. People normally get these powers from Rhythms, but you can use them all without a Rhythm.”

“But it’s all weakened since I don’t recite any Words. Even with High Rhythm powers, an Octave of 150,000 is the most I can manage.”

“I wonder why. Why don’t you have your own Words?”

“Well, wouldn’t that be because during the Kinki Riot-…”

He had smiled bitterly and lightly shaken his head.

“Because my wife has been sucking them out of me every night?”

Yuuki had narrowed her eyes offensively when she heard that.

“You moron… Did you forget your promise?”

“Ha ha. I remember that promise just fine.”

“And I just had you promise again the day before yesterday. …Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Your hand.”

Yuuki’s words and gaze had fallen toward Shoui’s hand touching her butt through her skirt.

“What’s so fun about that?”

—''Yuuki – Mind Tech – Take – Intimidation – Hit.

—''Shoui – Mind Tech – Counter-Take – Intimidation Reflection – Hit.

“You’re right. I probably need to stick my hand up your skirt for it to be really fun.”

“What do you mean ‘need’?”

“You’re the one that begged me with the ends of your eyebrows lowered last nigh- ow, ow, ow, ow! Is that really worth a backhand blow!?”

“Honestly, why do you have to bring up those things?”

“You’re the one that asked!”

“Shut up. Anyway, why are you here?”

“Um…”

“I’ll push you in the lake? Five, four, three…”

“Don’t count so fast! Um, Grandma Senga contacted me and said representatives of each region are holding a meeting about Ixolde. It’s apparently about whether to run a startup test.”

“I see.” Yuuki had nodded. “A startup test, hm? That tragedy may be more than a decade old now, but I still can’t believe they’re trying to create the ultimate Rhythm with that giant word accelerator. Prefectural #2’s Chancellor’s Officers are really being a nuisance.”

—''Shoui – School Tech –Take – Recall Memory – Hit.

“Either way, Prefectural #2 was only recently built, so it’s the only place that can gather the funds needed for that kind of facility. The academy rules ban financial support from corporations and the government, after all.”

“Shoui-kun, you intend to go to Prefectural #2 next year, don’t you?”

“Your grandma is too strict, so she won’t open Nandaimon up to boys.”

“There were apparently some boys as guards just after the Kinki Riot twelve years ago, but things have calmed down now with Japan still split between east and west.”

“Ixolde is going to bring some trouble, though. Tokyo sees the ultimate Rhythm as a danger, so they’ve held several world-class meetings about it, right?”

“Yes, but Osaka loves being the best in Japan.” Yuuki had sighed without changing her expression much. “In the past, they even crushed our plans to build a tower called Babel. …Well, I guess there’s nothing we can do about that.”

Yuuki had stood up and Shoui had followed her lead.

Their difference in age had put a difference in their heights.

Yuuki was a year older than Shoui, so her eyes were positioned one step above his.

She had looked down at him and removed the MD headphones from her ears.

“Well, it’s my job, so I have to go. Where’s the meeting?”

“At Prefectural #2 of course. You have to change trains three times.”

Just as the two of them had started walking, the north wind had blown in.

A moment later…

—''Shoui – Sight Tech – Auto-Take – Spot – Hit!

Suddenly, Yuuki’s glasses had shattered and a Japanese sword had thrust up.

“Yuuki!?”

Her body had floated up and fallen onto its back with a dull sound.

“…Uuh.”

She had made a small groan on the ground and covered her right eye with a hand.

Blood had spilled from between her fingers.

When Shoui had seen it, he had started to run over.

—''Shoui – Mind Tech – Auto-Take – Detect Killer Intent – Hit.

He had turned around.

—''Shoui – Sight/Dodge Tech – Multiple Auto-Take – Dodge – Hit!

He had rolled forward on reflex as a silver arc swept by overhead.

“Wah…toh!”

He had punched the ground to propel himself back to his feet and he had faced forward.

A tall boy in a combat coat student uniform had stood there with a bloody sword.

Shoui had recognized his somewhat slanted eyes and tense face.

“Nagoya Vice Chancellor Yamashita Gihei!? …What’s someone that important doing here!?”

Without even nodding, Yamashita had suddenly released his Words.

The Words had contained an intense low rumbling that called in lightning.

At that point, the phantom pain ran through Shoui’s forehead.

That pain came from the wound he had received soon afterwards.

“…!”

He had known he had to win, but his memories refused to play back any further.

He returned to reality.

He was below the Tsutenkaku and not by the Sarusawa Lake in Koto.

What had happened afterwards raced through his mind as facts, not as memories.

…''Breaking my promise, murder, and a unilateral farewell.

“If only I hadn’t passed out…”

The pulse behind those words was racing.

Once his vision returned, all five senses grew clearer.

He realized he was now sitting down with his legs outstretched and his back still against the Tsutenkaku’s pillar.

The can of coffee lay by his feet with its contents pooled up around it.

He smiled bitterly, but then heard the continuation of the lightning Words that marked the end of his memories.