Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

The sky above was a bright blue.

The ground below was covered by a dark cedar forest.

A deserted road ran through the center of the forest.

Roads around the country had been reinforced while the autobahn was constructed. The road signs depicted tanks or military trucks and they all provided the maximum weight for the bridges over the rivers.

Follow this north-south road to the mountainous region to the south and you would arrive in Munich.

On the way south, the slope became more apparent, the rivers narrower, and the road signs fewer and farther between.

The scenery also changed. Once at Nuremburg, less than 60 miles from Munich, the area was entirely taken over by forest. The road crossed an endless series of gentle hills surrounded by dark cedars.

The air was fresh, the road was wide, and route was straight.

The dark asphalt stretched endlessly through the black and green of the forest.

A single motorcycle drove along that strip of pavement. The 750cc BMW had a sidecar attached and Berger sat in the driver’s seat wearing a black coat. He wore no helmet and he no longer had a glove on his left hand. The new prosthetic arm had a noticeable metallic glint.

Hazel rubbed her eyes sleepily inside the sidecar attached on the right.

Their speed created considerable wind.

She tightened her collar and held her left shoulder.

The blanket slipped down to the seat, so she had to hold it in place.

She looked over and up at Berger while the moving motorcycle shook.

“Good morning. Um, what time is it?”

“There’s a clock under your seat,” he replied without taking his eyes off the road.

Her shoulders drooped at his answer, but she still reached her right hand below the seat.

“There’s an awful lot of trash under here.”

“Of course there is. That’s my trashcan. After I eat or have some other trash, I chuck it in there. I might not look it, but I like to take good care of nature.”

“Th-then, um, uh, what is this stickiness I feel down here?”

Her face stiffened and she pulled her hand out with something dark on her fingers.

“Eek!”

“Don’t scream, idiot. That’s just oil. For the seat’s springs.”

He laughed and she looked up to see him remove his left hand from the handlebar and pull out a pocket watch.

“Hm.”

He nodded and returned it to his pocket.

“A watch,” she muttered after watching the process play out. “Um, but you said…”

“I never said I didn’t have one too.”

“You’re mean.”

“So you’ve told me. Kids don’t have a wide vocabulary. If you want to sound grown up, find something else to call me.”

She pulled a paper handkerchief from her breast pocket, wiped her hand with it, and draped the blanket over the seat and floor. Then she glanced over at Berger again.

“You really aren’t very nice, you know?”

“Oh? That’s different at least. Keep it up.”

“Then I will. You don’t look away when I’m naked and you didn’t try to help me. You really are awful. How can you stay so calm when someone needs help?”

“You think I want to see some flat-chested kid? Listen, Hazel. A boring body is like meat that won’t sell at the butcher. There’s no point in covering it up and it’s not worth buying. Remember that.”

“Th-then what? I just need a bigger chest?”

“Don’t simplify, Hazel Mirildorf. The issue is more complex than that. Are you willing to say that a large and hairy chest is best?”

She gave that some serious thought before responding.

“Oh, I have my fur when I’m a cat, so I actually have that.”

“Um…why do you sound so delighted?”

He sounded annoyed and she could see yellowish Tons surrounding him.

…''Is he enjoying this?

The Tons soon disappeared, leaving her no way of determining what they meant. She sighed.

“I swear I’m not letting you see me naked next time we meet. And you had better not complain about it.”

“Sure thing, fräulein. I hope we do get to see each other again.”

His casual tone was a relief.

…''Fräulein.

That was what they called her at her school in America. She just about lost herself in thought about that, but she shook her head.

“Um.”

“Yeah?”

…''You saw me naked and didn’t try to help me, so…

“Why did you come back last night?”

“When I checked your luggage, I found something odd mixed in with the tragically small underwear: three test tubes. I wanted to ask you what you were doing with those here in Germany.”

“R-really? That’s really the only reason you came back?”

“Do you think I’d tell you if it wasn’t, Hazel?”

He kept a straight face and she had no rebuttal. Instead, she thought for a bit and filled the silence with a different question.

“Have you been driving this entire time? We’re almost to Munich, aren’t we?”

“We’re making a one-night trip from Berlin to Munich and then west to Donaueschingen at the entrance of the Black Forest. That’s around 400 miles and we have 210 miles to go. It’s a pretty insane distance to try to drive so quickly.”

Realizing her alternate question had not been much better, her shoulders drooped.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t sweat it, Hazel. I’m the only one that old upperclassman of mine gives these absurd tasks to. The official AIF force led by ‘Hardest Wolf’ Pale Horse is preparing for its first mission, yet that guy calls in a hired hand like me without giving me any training. …Because he knows I can handle it.”

“But…”

“But nothing, Hazel. If your apologies can make the motorcycle move faster, then keep it up.” He laughed bitterly. “Then again, the coins I was gonna give you are paying for this trip, so in a way, you really saved my ass here.”

“What coins?”

“The innkeeper gave me some imperial coins when we parted ways at Leipzig, remember? He was actually supposed to give them to you when you reached France. They were to fund your vacation in the Closed City.”

“Why…to me?”

He smiled.

“So you can dress up some. Why did cut you that pretty hair of yours? And why do you always look so tense? Were the American kids at your new school bullying you?”

He kept smiling.

“Unlike two years ago, I think it’s my turn to ask. Hazel, what do you want to be?”

“You already know that. I want to learn Tuning or Busting.”

“No, you don’t. That wasn’t what you wanted before you met Sylphide and before you got that brand on your shoulder, was it?”

She hesitated to respond, but she finally shook her head with her shoulders tensed.

“No…it wasn’t.”

“Listen, Hazel. Hazel Mirildorf. You’re a normal girl living in America. The Messiah still isn’t working because you don’t need that power anymore. Think of that as a lucky break.” He sighed. “You can go back to who you used to be. Abandon all that Tune-Bust stuff. …Or do you want to fight in a war?”

“But I…I didn’t want to run away two years ago. And like I said last night, I want to do something. My father is against it, but you, my teacher, and everyone else are working so hard.”

“You need more than words, Hazel. You failed to deliver a single letter and you’re a target. You can’t just fall back on ‘wanting to do something’.”

“But, but…not running away means to fight and to fight means for someone to die, doesn’t it? Then I want to do something…something else.”

“Childish idealism.” The words silenced her. “Remember this, Hazel. You can’t just want to do something. You’re free to want to save someone or to kill someone, but you need more than that.”

“What is it I lack?”

“See, you don’t even know what you need. If you did, last night wouldn’t have happened. They kneeled before you and you had no idea what to do. …You just didn’t want to run away, but you didn’t fight either. Did you accomplish anything else from that?”

…''Oh.

A new thought came to her, carrying regret, but it was cut off by his quiet laughter.

“Still, you did better than 2 years ago where you just let them take you away. …The Geheimnis Agency is pretty scary, aren’t they? Most of those Neue Kavaliers are mindless drones who let their master do all the thinking. That you found that frightening means-” He stopped there. “Forget it. Wouldn’t want to give you an ego.”

He twisted the accelerator as the road crossed a hill and began a short descent.

She pressed her butt into the seat against the sensation of falling forward.

“Wh-what were you going to say that would give me an ego?”

The road sloped back upwards. The motorcycle was stable, so she placed her hands on the edge of the seat and looked up at him in the wind.

But he did not look back her way as he replied.

“Hazel. Knowing you, you’ll figure it out on your own eventually. You can get back to America, forget all about war, and take your time thinking through it. …Don’t try to rush it.”

She ducked down when she saw him twist the accelerator further.

Instead of wind, the acceleration felt more like a wall of air growing thicker and more powerful.

Spotting a bluish-white shimmer in the distant sky, some words pushed out from her mouth.

“The wind is coming.”

Then a gust blew in from the front, shaking the motorcycle. Berger leaned forward to push down on the handlebars.

Her sidecar floated up a bit, and…

“It’s ending.”

The wind vanished and the sidecar’s wheel contacted the road again. They continued onward.

He let out a sigh and looked her way for the first time since she woke up.

Her eyes met his and her heart pounded when she realized there was no smile or anything else in his eyes.

“Wh-what?”

“Does your eye let you do that? The broken Messiah, I mean.”

“I think so. I must have learned the trick to reading wind Tons while I was with the Sylphide.”

“How strange. The Panzerpolis Project is nearing completion and last night suggests the Geheimnis Agents and some of the military can already use the Erklärung.” He sighed. “But you, the prophesied Messiah, can’t use it. All you can do is give a weather forecast.”

“A weather forecast? Um…”

“Head back to America, find yourself a husband, have 4 or 5 kids, and go hiking with your family. Or become a schoolteacher. That ability is best used on fieldtrips. Mountain weather is fickle, after all. Yes, you can be the PTA’s Field Trip Messiah.”

His casual suggestions made her stare for a bit, but then she sighed.

“Never mind. I’m going back to sleep. Wake me when we arrive, my canine driver.”

She shut her eyes and definitely heard him laugh.

She did not open her eyes again, but hear ears picked up the tempo of the Ton.

It was light, almost like the jingle of a small bell. It was quiet, but that meant he was trying to hide the Ton.

…''He never lets anything show.

She then spoke in English with her eyes still shut.

“Um, Mr. Berger? Are you listening?”

“What is it?”

“When I was taken from school 2 years ago, we were in the middle of writing down our plans for the future to turn in to our teacher.”

“Do you remember what you wrote?”

“I was taken away before I wrote mine. Because I had never really thought about my future and did not know what to write.

She tried to keep her tone cheerful, but he was not smiling when he responded.

“You’re pretty strait-laced. Something like a teacher might suit you pretty well.”

“You really think so?”

“It’s not my decision, Hazel. The entire point is for you to choose. If you manage that, there might be some hope for you after all.”

Then she heard him sing.

''In the deep darkness of the Black Forest

''Born from the abyss

''The wheel emerges

:''It whips up the wind and speaks with the dragon

:''It reads the wind and weeps

:''It carries power in its hand and hesitates

That was the 3rd Section of Daily Life from the Unreif Germane.

He sang it smoothly, matching the tempo of the wind and the joy. Hazel smiled when she applied the lyrics and title to herself.

This time, she really did decide to go to sleep. There was so much she still did not know, but…

…''Unlike 2 years ago, the Tons tell me so much now.

She sank down into the seat with a sigh of relief and fell asleep once more.

The wind was blowing gently.