Editing City Series:Volume4a Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 4===

'''5:45 PM

The bell rang and the door opened.

In the moonlight and gentle breeze, the girl remained motionless in front of the small rectangle of darkness.

The wind searched through and washed over that darkness as her eyes turned to the nameplate next to the door.

The old, darkened nameplate gave a certain boy’s name: Hizaka Shoui.

She simply stared at the name without really reading it.

A few beats later, she suddenly moved. She stepped into the darkness and into the detached room’s entranceway.

Closing the door further darkened the already dark room.

The external world was shut out.

All she could see was the moonlight shining in from the glass of the front sliding door, but she reached an arm into the darkness without relying on that light.

“…”

A bright fluorescent light turned on.

She leaned her staff against the small entranceway’s wall.

The sound of the staff bottom hitting the concrete floor reverberated solidly through the entranceway.

Next, silence fell.

After a few breaths, she very quietly opened the sliding door dividing the entranceway from the room itself.

She almost seemed to be trying to spy on who or what was inside.

After confirming that the dark space was fully opened, she removed her shoes, climbed the step, and made sure her shoes were properly aligned.

The series of actions had clearly become a habit.

She was now standing on the detached room’s tatami mat floor and she switched on the light here too.

At about seven square meters, the room before her eyes was only meant as a space to sleep in.

There was no closet and an unmarked futon was still folded up on the floor.

A large sand-colored dresser sat in front of the identically colored wall.

The only thing on the wall was a calendar hanging next to the dresser.

It was truly a dreary room.

It had almost no coloration. Everything was either the color of the walls or the color of the tatami mats.

Someone had clearly avoided bringing any color into the room as a way to suppress something. It felt like a method of restricting oneself.

The girl’s vermilion uniform stood out strongly below the fluorescent light.

Her eyes turned to the calendar on the wall.

It contained a picture of a snowy Kyoto mountain along with the days for December, the current month.

However, the year given on the calendar was 1994, which was two years in the past.

The girl remained silent when she saw that.

Her eyes then moved to top of the dresser. The owner of the room had allowed two pieces of color there.

The first was a folded karate uniform.

It had somewhat faded from numerous washings and a black belt lay with it.

The name Hizaka was spelled out at the end of the belt in bright gold, somewhat twisted stitching.

The other color sat next to it.

It was a trophy.

The extravagant trophy rose almost to the ceiling and the shine of its gold plating had not dulled in the slightest.

A vermilion and white ribbon was double-knotted at the top.

Without speaking a word, the girl faced the futon folded up in the corner.

Some new colors had been added behind the futon: a red vacuum cleaner, a metal bucket, and a dry rag on the rim of the bucket.

Those colors looked out of place in the monotone, sand-colored room, but she did not seem to care as she reached for the vacuum cleaner.

But then…

“Yuuki.”

She slowly turned toward a voice from outside the detached room.

A woman’s voice came from the large window on the east end of the room.

She did not hesitate to unlock the window and open it to either side.

The empty night spread out before her eyes.

A square of bright light fell onto the tightly packed dirt ground out front.

Two figures stood there.

One was the wooden pillar rising from the dirt and the other was a short old woman.

The woman wore a shirt and jeans and she had a slight smile on her aged face.

“Doing your daily cleaning, Yuuki? You sure are faithful.”

A hint of a bitter smile filled the lighthearted tone, but the girl called Yuuki said nothing in response.

The old woman realized her teasing would accomplish nothing, so she placed a hand on her back and looked directly at Yuuki.

“A Nandaimon child was attacked at Private Showa, so weren’t you on your way to deal with that?”

“I still have sixty-seven minutes until the designated time. This is a duel following the school rules, so they won’t run away.”

“If you give them that much time, I expect they’ll gather some friends to help. You do always tell them they’re free to get help, after all.”

“I prefer to take care of those pathetic people all at once. More importantly, what do you really want, Grandma Senga.”

The old woman looked up at Yuuki with a look of exasperation.

“They’re holding a meeting between the Chubu and Kansai Chancellors at Prefectural #2, but are you really not joining them?”

“What good would the Killing Holder do there?”

“Really? Are you sure it isn’t that you don’t want to disturb things too much? Like with the Nagoya Chancellor and-…”

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

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

“You sure do get scary when it comes to that topic, Yuuki.”

“And you get in a bad mood when I mention your spear,” said Yuuki. “Specifically, that Yuuki Senga was known as Kansai’s greatest spear-user but that she set aside her spear thirteen years ago.”

With that line, silence ruled their surroundings.

But that rule of silence was broken by a movement rather than a sound.

Senga shrugged her shoulders in exasperation.

And…

“Then how about this information? …That idiot Shoui has returned from the Mountain.”

She looked up as if to peer into Yuuki’s face, but the girl gave no visible reaction.

“I see.”

When the girl accepted the fact without even nodding, Senga frowned and leaned against the wooden pillar next to her.

“Is that all? Don’t you have something to say to him? Like why he didn’t stop by to say hi, about two years ago, or maybe that you’ve been cleaning this place ever since?”

“It’s no use.”

“What?”

“None of that would make bring him back.”

With that, Yuuki turned her back on Senga.

Her eyes fell on the karate uniform and trophy on top of the dresser.

A question from Senga reached her silent back.

“You don’t want to see him?”

“…”

“Or are you no longer waiting for him?”

“…”

“Do you not need a man who doesn’t keep the promise he made to you?”

Yuuki moved her head in response to that question.

It made the small up and down of a nod.

“I don’t need Hizaka Shoui.”

Senga had stopped talking, so Yuuki took over.

“It’s not possible for a guy like that to protect me.”

“That’s quite a statement. It’s not possible even though he won the West Japan Middle School Karate Championship? He won that title by defeating Ichimura Yuusei in the finals, but isn’t Ichimura now Nagoya’s Vice Chancellor who you’ve asked to spar with a few times since?”

“I don’t need anyone else’s opinion.”

“Then in your own opinion, do you truly think you don’t need him?”

“…”

“Even after picking him up from the ruins left by the Kinki Riot, healing his aphasia…and spending so much time with him?”

“…”

“If so, why have you been taking such good care of this detached room for the past two years?”

“It’s a linchpin,” said Yuuki. “The linchpin needed to keep the Killing Holder the Killing Holder.”

With that said, she closed the window behind her.

With a sharp sound, the light was cut off from the night.

Only the lingering tone remained in the air.

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| Back to [[City_Series:Volume4a_Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[City_Series|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[City_Series:Volume4a_Chapter_2|Chapter 2]]
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