Editing City Series:Volume4a Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 2===

'''4:31 PM

Shoui jumped straight up.

—''Shoui – Gym Tech – Take – Great Leap – Hit.

His long leap gave him plenty of air time and his blue uniform-wearing form landed on top of the wall between the schoolyard and street.

Without losing his balance, the wind washed over him five meters from the ground.

Below him, he could see Saki Seiji, the students who had surrounded him, and the schoolyard dug up for construction.

“Is that for Ixolde, the giant word accelerator installed underground? This place looks like a tilled field.”

“What are you talking about? The Nandaimon Shrine was the only place that opposed creating the ultimate Rhythm using Ixolde. What about you!?”

“What about me? Sorry, I’m not interested in politics.”

“Then what are you interested in!?”

Shoui suddenly brought his fists to his waist and spread his hands.

“!”

The Chancellor’s Officers students scattered at the combat stance.

“I’m interested in…”

He used his spread hands to mime grabbing something from below.

“First of all, girls.”

His tone was entirely serious.

“Next would be honor and finally money. Aren’t those the main three driving forces for guys?”

He asked with his serious expression intact and received only silence in response.

The wind blew and more silence followed.

Finally, he looked down at the others and asked a question.

“Am I…wrong?’

“That settles it. I’m killing you even if I don’t have a good reason.”

Saki pointed his spear at Shoui and clicked his tongue.

“Besides, you’re a hell of a guy. Even with a Tech, jumping up onto a five meter wall isn’t easy.”

“That’s because I don’t want to fight if I don’t have to. I’ll jump five meters if it means getting out of this.”

“You went to that much effort to weasel your way out of this!? Hey! Don’t run away!”

“Oh, c’mon. I’m just heading out to play until you’ve all left and I can sneak into the dorm behind the school building. I still have to unpack my things.”

“That’s called running away!”

“Oh, what a quick retort.”

“Why you…”

“Calm down. There’s no rule saying you have to accept a fight someone picks with you, is there? Right? Right?”

Shoui lifted the bandanna from his eyes and smiled.

“And with that, I’ll be going. Farewell.”

With a quick wave, he tried to jump back, but…

“I’m not letting you get away, you moron!”

—''Saki – Draw Tech – Take – Throw – Hit!

The spear rotated as it flew toward Shoui. He had just taken his stance to jump, so it audibly slammed into the side of his waist.

“Wah!”

It did little damage, but the inertia of the rotating spear knocked him to the side.

He fell from the wall and into the schoolyard again.

—''Shoui – Gym Tech – Take – Land – Hit.

He spun through the air and managed to land right next to the main gate.

He could leave the school ground by taking a jump backwards, but…

“I said I’m not letting you get away!”

Saki charged forward with a weapon shaped like a short sword.

When he swung it, the hilt extended to create a spear.

This was a new spear.

[[Image:City_v04a_055.jpg|thumb]]

When Shoui realized his enemy had not lost his weapon, his mouth tensed.

“H-h-h-h-ow many of those do you have!? No fair!”

“Just shut up and die!”

With that conclusion, Saki used his empty hand to stick headphones into his left ear.

—''Saki – Spear Tech/Pressure High Rhythm – Take – Charge – Hit.

Saki’s Words were spoken in a low, quiet voice.

''Heaven, please answer the longing found in the sky of my final moments

:''Simply let the white snow fall on the heavy darkness as you raise your cry

The spear tip flew straight toward Shoui’s gut as a black force of high gravity surrounded it.

A hit from that would take out two or three ribs in a concentrated attack.

“…!”

Shoui did not respond by singing or uttering his Words. Instead, he stuck his left hand in his pocket and his right straight forward.

…''Will I make it in time!?

He shut his eyes and wished for power in his heart.

In that instant, his right fist stuck Saki’s spear.

“!”

The explosion lasted only a brief moment.

The black light burst with a sound like a breaking board.

The spear shattered and Saki was knocked backwards.

“The hell!?”

—''Saki – Gym Tech – Take – Landing Control – Hit.

Shoui, on the other hand, remained motionless. His right fist was still held forward and he stared silently at Saki.

Saki’s gaze turned toward Shoui’s right fist and Shoui listened to his question.

“What is that!?”

Saki was pointing at the black light residing in Shoui’s right fist.

Lives at an Octave of about 100,000 had emitted a powerful Word Color and summoned some ether.

“Did you instantly call in the same Pressure High as me without using any Words!?”

Shoui did not answer.

To let the music of a Rhythm flow through one’s body, the user normally had to sing their own Words and place the Rhythm’s Message inside those Words.

But Shoui never sung the necessary Words when he used a Rhythm.

In fact, he could not sing them.

That was why his Urban Name was Dis-Worder.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Saki. “Can you use any Rhythm indiscriminately because you don’t have the individuality of Words?”

“I don’t know how it ended up like this, but it seems I’m a popular guy when it comes to Rhythms.”

“…”

“Um, by any chance, are you still going to try to fight?”

“Yeah…”

Saki Seiji stuck a hand in his pocket and pulled out another new spear.

Shoui looked up into the sky when he saw his opponent’s weapon.

“Ahh… Can’t you stop this?”

“I have no reason to.”

“But I really don’t get why I’m being attacked here.”

“Then let me tell you one thing.”

“?”

Saki pointed the new spear Shoui’s way.

—''Saki – Talk Tech – Take – Long-Distance Conversation – Hit!

The movements of Saki’s lips became noise which sounded directly in Shoui’s ears.

Only Shoui could hear these words.

“Ever since the Kinki Riot thirteen years ago, Osaka’s 1st Special Duty Officer has been given the following information.”

“Information?”

“The Dis-Worder must not be allowed near Osaka’s Chancellor’s Officers.”

“Th-that’s completely unscientific!”

“This information is backed by something that I can’t tell the likes of you about. But if you knew what I did, you’d probably leave the city of your own volition.”

Saki’s words were backed by absolute confidence.

“Plenty of people lose their Words due to aphasia or other disorders, but every decade or so, one moron impaired by that silence will still rush into the world of Rhythms and Words. This year, it’s you.”

“But this wasn’t supposed to be an unlucky year… Are you sure you can’t overlook me?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. You’ve heard the theory that people without Words of their own can influence other people’s Words, haven’t you?”

Saki switched back on the MD in his pocket.

The Pressure High Rhythm’s music replayed from the beginning.

“In that case, your actions could easily influence Osaka during the tension of the Ixolde problem. Do you get what that means?”

Saki took a step forward, but his aura was completely different now.

Instead of observing or asking a question of his opponent, he simply moved forward.

Shoui took a defensive stance.

…''I can’t believe this. How am I supposed to escape?

He lowered his hips in preparation to move.

At the same time, Saki charged forward.

“Seaaaaaaahhhh!”

He pulled his spear back as far as it would go as he made his charge, but he never finished his war cry.

Something unexpected cut in between Saki and Shoui.

It was a wind.

The air gently fluttered and a shimmering of heat rose between the two boys.

“Is this-…!?”

Before Saki could finish his question, a voice raced in a straight line across the schoolyard.

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!”

It was a deep male voice speaking a simple, monosyllabic Word.

That Word caused the air to explode.

The tearing raced across the schoolyard in a straight line.

The destructive roar created an echoing ensemble.

“!?”

The tearing wind and impact slammed into the ground.

Dirt and sand were blasted skyward with a great noise.

…''This Rhythm!?

“Is that Kusanagi, the ogre-slaying Wind Rhythm!?”

Before Shoui was even done speaking, a loud metallic sound instantaneously distorted the surrounding scenery.

And before that distortion returned to normal, the great roar suddenly vanished.

The sudden silence was followed by plenty of dirt and sand falling from the sky.

And in that downpour of dirt, Shoui was looking toward the schoolyard gate instead of at Saki.

The attack had flown form that direction and two people stood there.

One was a boy and the other a girl.

The boy wore a student combat coat and raised a sword in his two false arms.

The girl wore personal clothes and her long ponytail fluttered in the wind as she brushed it back with a false arm far too large for her body.

The previous attack had been made by a diagonal upwards slash of the boy’s sword.

He spoke as he sheathed the sword.

“What are you doing, Saki? Depending on your answer, I, Osaka Chancellor Nanba Souichirou, will pass my judgment on you.”

Nanba Souichirou looked to Shoui and Saki with his one eye.

Shoui whistled at the one-eyed gaze.

“Wow. I can see how you slayed an ogre with that.”

“You don’t think our Chancellor’s a Chancellor, do you?”

“But I was complimenting him. …Man, that’s way more powerful than the Over Rhythms we use.”

His eyes briefly stopped on the sword guard eyepatch, but then he looked to the girl standing next to Nanba Souichirou.

The ponytailed girl with a giant false arm attached to her left shoulder bent her eyes in a cheerful expression before staring intently at Shoui.

When their gazes met, her mouth moved.

“It’s been a year, Shoui. How’ve ya been?”

“Oh, it’s you, boss.”

When he heard Shoui’s troubled expression, Souichirou turned toward the girl behind him.

The girl nodded.

“That guy…Shoui’s, well, a friend of mine.”

She smiled a little.

“It was beatin’ him at the Mountain last year that got me my spot as Nagoya Chancellor.”

“Don’t tell them that, boss! You’ll hurt their impression of me!”

“Don’t worry about it. More importantly, it’s good to see ya again.”

She took a breath.

“Shoui, if ya get caught in anythin’ too weird, I, Nagoya Chancellor Yamashita Taeko, will give ya some advice in place of your parents. …Okay?”

When they heard that, a stir ran through the boys spread out in the schoolyard.

Hearing those overlapping voices, Shoui held his forehead over his bandanna.

The phantom pain had vanished at some point.