Editing City Series:Volume4a Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 2===

'''1:28 PM

A vermilion shrine stood quietly in the afternoon sun.

It was Nandaimon Shrine.

Its current master, Yuuki Senga, stood before the sanctuary.

The entrance to the vermilion wooden structure was closed by a bulkhead painted with yellow and black danger stripes. “Use Extreme Caution” was written in red letters at the center.

“…”

Senga silently operated the key panel on the wall next to it.

She pressed a few keys and inserted a card she pulled from her pocket.

After a pause, she pressed her thumb against a point on the panel.

—''Senga – Mechanic Tech – Take – Machine Operation – Hit.

The bulkhead moved.

It had looked like a solid piece, but it split into four pieces and receded into the sanctuary wall.

The sanctuary had looked wooden on the outside, but it was a fully-equipped modern shelter on the inside.

The bulkhead revealed a slope leading underground.

In the darkness beyond, another bulkhead could be heard opening. It led to the sanctuary proper.

The low sound of heavy moving metal was accompanied by the slope’s lights turning on.

The bright light reflected off the flexible gray metal of the walls and floor.

Senga stared down the pathway and sighed.

“Maybe it’s about time to let Yuuki put the sanctuary and history books to rest. Her grandfather’s soul hasn’t been showing up lately…”

She complained as she walked down and reached for a touch panel on the wall.

When she did…

“Hey, wait! Wait just a second!”

She turned in surprise toward a male voice.

A boy stood there.

He wore a red mountain hoodie with a tattered bottom and he looked young.

…''Is he a student? But…

“Is sneaking up on a woman without letting her sense your presence your idea of a greeting?”

“Sorry, sorry. But my personal rules say you can only yourself a woman up to the age of twenty-eight. You didn’t know that?”

“I don’t like to brag, but I turned twenty-five this year.”

“That I didn’t know. That’s called being a nonagenarian, right?”

“…Are you trying to pick a fight? What brings a Critical Forcer here?”

The boy whistled lightly at what she said.

“That’s the former head teacher at the Mountain for you. How could you tell my Combat Style?”

“The soles of your shoes are scraped up at the toes. That’s because you shift your center of gravity with kicks, isn’t it? It’s impressive that both shoes are like that.”

“I see…”

He looked into the sanctuary behind Senga.

“I’ve been wondering. What’s in there?”

“What will you do if I tell you?”

“Feel impressed. …Hey, quit sighing and tell me.”

“Hah. This is where the Devices, prosthetics, and history books created by the Nandaimon Shrine are kept. They’re all so old that their spirits tend to get a little rowdy, so they have to be put to rest once a day.”

“Hmm. Do you have the rumored hand of that Rashoumon ogre? Y’know, the arm of the ogre Osaka Chancellor Nanba Souichirou fought and slayed last year.”

Senga smiled bitterly.

“That arm is valuable for research, so it’s being preserved. But it wasn’t a Rashoumon ogre.”

“That’s just what the rumors say. I don’t actually think it was either.”

“You’re an interesting boy. Everything you say is so vague. …What are you truly after?”

Senga gave a small smile and the boy smiled back.

“I’m here to defeat the Koto Chancellor.”

Both the sudden comment and how casually he had said it left Senga speechless.

A short time passed.

“…What?”

“After all, she’s the only Chancellor that’s killed someone over the last ten years, right? Nanba Souichirou’s strong too, but he killed an ogre, not a person. That means defeating the Koto Chancellor would be better from an image standpoint.”

“…”

“Huh? Eh? Umm, don’t give me that scary look. I was just stopping by, but she wasn’t here. She wasn’t at her school either. I had nothing to do with her gone, but then I spotted you.”

With that, he took a step toward the inside of the sanctuary.

“Do not go inside!” shouted Senga.

“…”

“The sanctuary is under constant surveillance from the Suzaku Ver. 40 in orbit.”

“You mean that combat satellite that was launched before the Wort Bombe created the Great Canopy? …So what about its surveillance?”

“If anyone but me goes inside, a word particle cannon will fire on them from orbit when they leave. Do you want to be hit by a cannon blast that destroys everything in a kilometer at full power?”

“That’s just cruel. Wouldn’t you destroy your own Koto region with that?”

“It’s better than having anything taken from here. The people of Koto are prepared for that.”

“Hmm.”

The boy nodded and took a step back.

He stuck both hands in his mountain hoodie’s pockets and let out a disinterested sigh.

“The Suzaku Ver. 40 is a machine, so it wouldn’t be using a Tech to fire… And even if I dodged it, I wouldn’t be in the clear with a blast of that size.”

Senga frowned at that.

“Tech? Dodged it?”

“Hm? What about it?”

Senga stared at the boy’s face and their gazes clashed.

It took some time before she spoke.

“I once…” She took a breath as if hesitating. “I once heard someone say the same thing as you. During the Kinki Riot thirteen years ago, an idiot said they could dodge the Suzaku Ver. 40’s cannon.”

“…”

“Tell me your name and your teacher’s name.”

“Will you fire on me from orbit if I don’t?”

“That might not help if you’re who I think you are.”

“You’re overestimating me,” he said with a bitter smile.

He straightened his back, looked down at Senga, and spoke with a pleasant smile.

“I’m Tokyo Chancellor Nakamura Hisahide. …My teacher’s name is Iba Masaaki. You know him, don’t you?”

His question was answered with silence.

Senga’s gaze wandered.

She looked down, seemed about to say something, and then looked Hisahide in the eye again.

“I was right.”

“That old man said you, Yuuki Senga, would probably make up your mind pretty quickly.”

“Only probably? That idiot’s underestimating me. Does this mean Iba created a White Noise user!?”

“I wanted to be one.”

“Why?”

“To meet my sister and become the king.”

Hisahide continued in an almost arrogant tone.

“I’d like to hear the opinion of Yuuki Senga, leader of the Nandaimon Shrine, former head teacher of Mt. Kouya’s Mountain, and leader of the Kansai Temple and Shrine League. Are the rumors true that Ixolde is going to create the most powerful Rhythm?”

“You came to Kansai because you think they are true, didn’t you?”

“I want to hear the truth from you, the only person to oppose the Ixolde project.”

He lowered his hips, crossed his arms, and sat on the ground.

“I’m not moving until you tell me.”

“What will you do if I tell you?”

“Cry.”

His tone was jocular, but a horrible stillness filled his expression.

He looked up at Senga with the look of a student awaiting his teacher’s lesson.

—''Senga – Mind Tech – Take – Decode Expression – Hit.

“I see.”

“…”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking or what you feel obligated to do, but you must deem this necessary.”

Hisahide said nothing.

He waited motionlessly for Senga to speak, so she responded to his silence.

“The Rhythm it will create is far more powerful than the Wind Rhythm Kusanagi that Souichirou uses. It will be the Heavy Rhythm Yamata, aka the Flame High. That mysterious Rhythm is said to exist in this Land of Fire and Land of the Rising Sun.”

She took a breath.

“But it was lost when used by Tokyo Chancellor Nakamura Midori during the Kinki Riot.”