Editing City Series:Volume8b Chapter15 (section)

===Aoe’s Continued Sight Mode: In DT Castle===

'''<Aoe’s Over Reload>

The heat produced by the shattering created a wind that blew Aoe away.

The next thing he knew, he saw the metal floor back over his shoulder.

That meant he was flipped onto his back in midair, so he instantly punched at the floor.

The impact pushed him back into a flip. He turned his back in the direction he was moving, took control of his body in midair, and landed on the floor.

He ended up crouching between two of the Questron’s leaves.

He saw Monkey back in mini form.

He also saw Yuo seated between the leaves with her hands on the floor.

Something fell in front of him as he viewed her.

A yellow program trigon had been tossed this way by the heated wind.

The mark on its surface depicted lightning stabbing into an open hand. That was the program controlling her sense of touch.

The ferret ran over before he could snatch it from the air. The ferret leaped like a baseball player but with his mouth open wide instead of a glove. He caught the trigon in his mouth and swallowed it while rolling across the floor.

A solid thud soon followed.

“Mh,” grunted Aoe, looking up.

He saw Yuo.

She was still wrapped in the green cloth and now she was bent over and holding her head.

He looked to the Questron above her. He noted the corner of a curving metal panel at about her head height. It was right where she would hit the back of her head if she stood up from there.

<She stood up in excitement as soon as she felt her sense of touch return, didn’t she?>

Yuo rubbed her head with both hands and opened a window.

<Owww.>

“You idiot.”

She looked up when she heard him. And she stopped rubbing her head.

She opened her unfocused eyes and quickly looked side to side. She was searching for him.

So he took her hand.

<Oh.>

Before that window even opened, he scooped her into his arms while standing up.

She resisted for a moment, but she relaxed the next moment and let him carry her. Her hands found his body, moved up to his shoulder, and grabbed on.

He nodded and then noticed something strange.

The floor was shaking slightly.

<Is this place collapsing?>

“We must pursue Algo,” he said.

She nodded and smiled bitterly.

<You’re a man of few words, aren’t you?>

He read the window and checked her expression.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Her expression was gentle and changed frequently. That meant she was in Sight Mode.

So he shut his eyes and thought about what she had said.

<She said the same thing when we first met.>

He kept the words on the window she couldn’t see and said something else out loud.

“I am blunt by nature.”

He looked up and noticed something scattering through the ceremony room.

Myst’s windows were shattering in a chain reaction.

An alarm continued to sound as the dust of shattered windows fell through the air. Fell slowly and silently.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

One new window floated at the center of it all.

“What is that?”

That was where Myst had been standing.

He carried Yuo across the shaking floor toward it, but she couldn’t see.

<What is what?>

“The artist drew something for you.”

He looked at the window, but he couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be. It was a negative image, so colors polarized to purples and oranges were drawn atop a black background.

He only needed to alter the window properties to fix it, but he didn’t know how.

The ferret had followed after at his feet and, after some thought, raised his front paw.

The image on the window suddenly changed. The negative of blacks and purples became a positive image with the proper colors.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

The window depicted Yuo and Aoe. It was a rushed hand-drawn image done in watercolor.

The Questron was in the background. In front of the roughly colored metal, an equally roughly drawn Yuo was held to Aoe’s chest while she held a window to herself and had a serious look on her face.

“A look of determination, huh?”

<Eh?>

After Yuo’s question, the window folded itself up and disappeared. The ferret had stored it.

All of the specks of light floating in the ceremony room vanished at about the same time.

“You can see it once you get your vision back.”

His reassurance was followed by a tremor that seemed to shake the entire room. It was a powerful vertical shaking.

A window appeared.

'''<Warning: Forced interruption of Questron output has placed too great a burden on the system. Please evacuate the area immediately>

Extremely heavy destruction began overhead as if answering the warning.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

The metallic mass forming the ceiling was pushed down along with a few smaller pieces.

First, a piece crashed loudly down. A meter-long hunk of metal landed on the seven-layer diskette program covering half the ceremony room.

That was the starting point.

Aoe sensed more large masses beginning to move to the right, left, front, and back.

“Damn.”

He took off running.

He leaped atop the diskette program and kept moving forward, rushing toward the bulkheads leading out of the ceremony room.

The ferret cried once while passing by the ashes left by Suedomsa.

Yuo flinched in Aoe’s arms when she heard that cry, so Aoe spoke to her.

“You can return here and cry once things settle down.”

He moved his gaze from Yuo’s lowered head to the first bulkhead. The sounds of destruction were continuing.

Once he was only a few paces away from the bulkhead, he heard a sound from overhead.

It was an annoying sound, like the chirping of an insect, so he looked up toward it.

There was a distorted square mass overhead. It had to be at least 2 yards across and it was falling toward them.

He cried out in alarm, but without warning, a bluish-white panel inserted itself between them and the falling metal.

The hunk of metal that had to weigh several tons crashed loudly into the defense shield.

The bluish-white barrier stopped the falling steel.

The bulkhead leading outside opened in front of Aoe.

Only then did he look back inside the ceremony room.

He heard a rumble and the sound of spilling sand as more metal fell to the floor.

The diskette program and Questron had already been smashed to pieces by the heavy objects.

Several damage warning windows opened, but Aoe still managed to spot a woman inside there.

“You.”

Akalabeth stood with her back turned deep inside the room. Her reddish-purple dress was not a bit out of place.

She held her bleeding side and had grown transparent.

Aoe tried to say something.

“–––––”

But he couldn’t find the words, so he turned away from her and ran out through the open bulkhead.

The defense shield protecting them immediately vanished and the ceiling pieces fell.

'''<Aoe’s Sight Mode has updated>