Editing Dantalian no Shoka:Volume1 Chapter7 (section)

===Part 3===

After midnight, Hal slipped out of Mabel Nash's house.

The confined girl wasn't with him and neither did he carry his silver staff. The tall book burner turned over the sleeves of his robe and walked through the dark, sleeping town.

He was heading to the back of a hill that lied beyond the heart of the town.

It wasn't obvious at one glance, but if one took a good look at the city map, one could notice that the connections between the streets of this town were extremely unnatural at some points. There was one area that was largely evaded by all the streets so that one couldn't reach it by car.

It was also impossible to see it from far away because of heights and forests --- so it could be called the shadow of this town.

After walking through the darkness without rest, Hal finally reached the blockaded hill.

And he held his breath.

"I see... so that was it..."

The back side of the town that he could see from there was a gruesome view of rubble and ash.

The remains of buildings that had been mowed down by a blast. Streets that had turned into mere ashes after being engulfed in a sea of flames.

It was a horrendous sight. Even after the long time that had passed since, one could still clearly feel the magnitude of the catastrophe that had haunted this town. The traces of war.

This town had probably been air-raided by the enemy country just like the capital.

Attacked by countless bombs. Burned down by the flames the explosions called forth.

Hundreds of buildings had surely been burned to ashes - and many more humans had lost their lives.

Eventually, even the people of this town had abandoned this land.

In terms of size, the area was almost half the town's. Such a big space was left as scorched earth.

Most of the survivors seemed to be in the dark about the existence of this area - because someone was hiding it from them.

Someone had erased the remembrance of those terrible traces from the memories of the villagers.

But, who had done that? And why...?

"...Oh... What are you doing out here?"

Suddenly, while Hal was in deep thought, a sweet voice reached his ears.

When he turned around, he saw a woman standing next to him.

The woman was rather tall and voluptuous. Her dress was skimpy with a low neckline whereas her dress had a deep slit in which one could see her seductive thighs. An obscene perfume surrounded her gaudily decorated hair. She was the very model of a prostitute. Yes, almost ''too'' exemplary, which gave her the feel of a mere fabrication---

Like the other residents of this town, that prostitute seemed artificial.

"Hey, don't ignore me!" The woman went around to Hal's front, irritated by his silence. Then, she noticed with a surprised voice: "Oh, what a lovely man..."

She entwined both her arms around his and pushed her bosom against his chest. 

"Hey sweetie. Are you alone? Fancy spending the night together with me?"

"Why?" Hal sighed, bored.

The prostitute looked in surprise at Hal's face.

"Huh?"

"I don't particularly mind when a prostitute touts on the street. But why are you at such a place?"

"Boy... what are you talking about?"

A slight sign of anger emerged on her face.

...which looked just how a third-class caricaturist would draw it.

"There should be much better places for a prostitute to lure customers. So why have you come here? Who commanded you?" He asked, while letting his gaze wander over the ruins of the town.

"Who...? What the heck? What are you...?"

The prostitute was clearly agitated. Any expression had already left her face, leaving behind a inhumanly bare face that reminded one of a sculpture.

Hal asked coldly: "Answer me. Who commanded you to come here?"

"Commanded... me? What do you mean? Seriously, what are you talking about...?" She shook her head awkwardly.

Hal continued without paying any attention to this, "Was it your own will that you came here and addressed me?"

"What are you talking about...? What the heheheck...? Whawhawhawhawhat...?" The woman's mouth formed words like a broken record player while opening her vacant eyes wide.

Hal frowned.

Suddenly, something white flashed past his view as fast as a blade.

"?!"

Fresh blood dropped down from Hal's cheek. The prostitute had thrust out her arm towards him, cutting the darkness apart: her shaking arm had suddenly, and carefully targeted, attacked his carotid artery. If Hal's reaction had been just a little slower, he would have died without a doubt.

"So it was you who attacked the strangers? No... or...," Hal asked while evading her continuous attacks.

However, the words of the prostitute were already devoid of meaning.

"WhawhawhatWhawhaT... arrrarree..." While wringing out words in a weird voice, she thrust out her fingers, aiming at Hal's eye balls.

Her arm was moving at a monstrous speed, but Hal easily grabbed it in mid-air. Yet, the woman didn't stop her movement. She lifted him up with an unworldly power just in order to strike him against the ground.

But in the moment she was about to swing her arm down, Hal muttered, "What immense strength," before disappearing for a moment and appearing behind her without making a sound.

The shoulders of the expressionless prostitute trembled clearly - as if she was disturbed. With a thunderous roar from deep within her throat, she thrust out her left arm again.

"But... it's useless."

Hal caught her bullet-like arm once again. He twisted her elbow into the wrong direction and did the same for her shoulder in one breath.

"Wha---!!" screamed the prostitute.

It is impossible to ignore the construction of the human body - no matter how powerful one is. Her joints creaked up, strained nearly to their limit.

"Don't move. This is a technique from the oriental martial art 'Baritsu'. You could easily break your arm," explained Hal coldly.

But the prostitute didn't think of stopping her resistance. The creaking of her bones grew more intense. A slight sign of unrest appeared on the cheeks of Hal's expressionless face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

The prostitute broke her arm, producing an unpleasant sound. And then her elbow was torn apart.

Hal made a stern face. Not a single drop of blood was flowing in her torn-off left elbow, which was flying away. Only a wooden cross-section could be seen in her elbow joint.

"You---"

The woman, who had freed herself from his technique, took advantage of Hal's momentary disturbance and thrust out her right arm.

The side part of his coat got cut apart and became soaked with fresh blood. He kicked the prostitute away to create some distance.

"Ah, so that's it... that's the answer...," he muttered while gazing at her left arm on the ground.

To be exact, it was a piece of wood. A piece of wood that was shaped to look like a human arm, with a polished wooden ball as joint. The lower half of a puppet's arm.

The one-armed prostitute rushed towards Hal.

But before she could reach him, he grabbed her head without a problem and struck it against the ground.

Her head was smashed up and shattered into countless dry splinters.

What was left in the end was --- the remains of a scantily clad puppet.