Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 1 (section)

===Record 86: Zoning Out Amid the Excitement===

'''10/11/1998

'''9:50

It was the second day of the athletics festival and that meant a boy-only swim competition. The large outdoor pool was packed full of boys.

I was using my authority as Vice Chancellor to monitor the scene and the Boss was using his authority as 2nd Special Duty Officer to capture any escapees as we both sat on the poolside. He wore his usual work outfit and gazed at the pool with his pompadour and sunglasses.

“It’s a nice pool, but there’s nothing too exciting here. …Are the girls using the indoor greenhouse pool?”

“Snowy is guarding the place with her sword, so things might be more brutal there than here.”

“What about Senpai? Is he with the 1st Special Duty Officer?”

“Yeah. She just sinks in the water, so the two of them are folding printouts together in the student living room.”

As soon as I said that, an impressive splash flew erupted upwards with a deafening noise. I used my wonderful fist to punch back the boy who came flying toward me with the splash and then I sighed.

“Looks like the male Heavy Knight diving competition has started.”

A black transport plane passed by in the sky above and an eight meter Heavy Knight jumped down from the back end.

The Heavy Knight made one, two, three, four spins before its waist armor panels detached and it entered a tailspin.

“Oh, the accident makes that one Difficulty C. This one’s gonna be big.”

“Will the pool be okay?”

“It’ll be fine.”

“What about the students?”

“They’ll live.”

A splash rose into the air. The boys at the landing point were blown away like leaves.

“Oh, look at them all flying. Told you it’d be big.”

“Oh, this ain’t good. The idiots that were blasted away are trying to crawl off and escape. I’ll go hit ‘em with my car.”

He was back soon.

“Sigh, running them over wasn’t as exciting as I thought. Wanna play some kinda game?”

“Your games always get way out of hand. I prefer the peace we already have here.”

I looked up into the sky to see another transport plane. This one dropped two Heavy Knights at once.

“Synchronized diving, huh?”

The Heavy Knights in the sky played classical music that was influenced by the Doppler Effect. The song was the ever popular Fourth Movement of Beethoven’s Fifth. The two of them danced and spun around hand-in-hand to match the music.

“And then they collide and enter a tailspin~”

“What’s their score?”

The electronic display on the opposite side of the pool said Normal, Normal, Good, 10, Extra Good, Normal, and High. That averaged out to a 5.

It was a pretty strict judgement. I looked up into the sky again and saw another transport plane flying in.

The blue sky beyond the plane fluttered up a little to reveal its pure blue lining.

“The real autumn sky will be here before long, won’t it?”

Another splash erupted into the sky.

'''Author Comment:

Just like the athletics festival in the Osaka game, the athletics festivals in Tokyo – or rather, in the City World as a whole – seem quite exciting. You need to be eighteen to get a Heavy Knight license.

Now, in the original publication, the Boss spoke in the Kansai dialect, but I changed that to standard Japanese after the serialization began. It felt like an unnatural way to establish his character.