Editing City Series:Volume5a Chapter4 (section)

===Beretta’s Write Bring: Entry in Heavy Barrel Grazie’s Memory Bank===

And with that, I’ve finished the Write Bring and stepped out into the school’s mock battlefield. I’ll start off with a Point.

<The bowl-shaped colosseum is huge even when viewed from my 8-yard height.>

Has this place been around for a long time, I wonder? I know I’ve heard that Sorbonne University has existed since the middle ages.

Hm. But, well, the girls are there in the stands, but there’s no one else there, not even the professor. Are all the guys still holed up in the eastern storage room? Well, they’re doing a forced Write Bring on someone who isn’t used to it, so I guess it’ll take some time.

I suppose I’ll move around a bit now.

HLP018 77-LL Grazie is the Barrel I used during last year’s year-end festival. It’s a female Heavy Barrel from World War One, so it’s kind of impressive it’s held together so well. In a Heavy Barrel museum, it would rank at a preservation level of B.

The emblems on the shoulders are angel wings.

Grazie’s Over Emblem is a mobility-increasing ability called Ange, but I’ve never activated it. In San Francisco of ’98, Grazie was completely outdated and its modern version, Joie, has an attack Over Emblem called Tout Ange.

But the records say Grazie is a pretty powerful Barrel, don’t they? It inherited the poor wire cylinder output adjustment of the previous model, Sourire, but its instantaneous power can give a modern Barrel a run for its money.

As always, this girl is very well maintained. Despite being such an old model, the arms move just fine and they don’t catch at all. She writes to the memory bank with decent speed, too.

What I didn’t like was when I Pointed in the storage room and saw the armored dress to hide my nudity was the same 20-year-old design from last year and that the Barrel barely had any armor on it. This is a female model, but it’s more like shiny skin than jewel-like skin.

And the legs are a little worrying. They’re a bit skinny, but the lubrication oil used in them is old. I pointed it out before, but it’s still using the same oil as the arms. The legs bear more weight than the arms, so I’d prefer more viscous oil than in the arms. It’s about endurance over mobility.

But I guess there’s nothing I can do about the power restriction. It can probably run, but I doubt it can hold its ground. A few of the wire cylinders would probably be taken out. But they’ve left it with enough power to move around, so is that what they call “German generosity” or are they just stupid? If I gathered spare parts from across France, I could probably build a full Barrel on this level.

But, well, I guess it is true that Barrels are outdated.

The armor is thinner than a tank’s, they make a big target, and they aren’t as maneuverable as an airplane.

They’re intimidating as hell, though. That’s why they’re used in cities and infantry divisions.

I bet the Germans are doing a lot of research to find some tech that will let them rival modern weaponry. After all, that country is gathering Death Techno. Not that I’m much different there…well, I should stop thinking about that. The others might Sign these memories later on.

But I can’t believe this. The joints feel all hollow, which is kind of sad.

Oh, and I can’t stand that my weapon is a wooden sword. The Germans have done a real thorough job of confiscating everything. It was a wooden spear back at the year-end festival, wasn’t it?

I’m a Phalanx. A spear-user. That’s the real difference between me and my grandma, who taught all about Heavy Barrels. She never once performed a Write Bring in front of me, but she’s known as the Sword Lady, so she must have used a sword.

I wonder how she’s doing. I’ve been feeling a bit down lately.

And I know why.

I want to ask someone for advice and I have so much to think about, but there’s no one I can talk with. I’m an outsider in this world and everything I’m thinking is either out of character for me or is something I’m not allowed to say. I can’t be like that old man I saw at the bakery.

I might be worrying Rosetta with all this. She said this in an earlier letter:

<And I am thinking about how you sometimes look like you are lost in thought

If there is something you want to say I hope you will tell me>

If she wants to become human and trusts me, maybe I could tell her. Tell her about this world and the incident I’m involved in. And that I’m a Knight Striker, but I couldn’t protect some people.

Wow, this is getting dark. I need to distract myself.

“Activate Wide-Range Vision: Success”

I had only been using the anti-ground vision, but now my vision spread out to include the sky and the horizon.

My vision was never this wide as a human. This mode uses the two anti-ground sight devices, the one superior eye sight device on the forehead, and the compound eye sight devices on the left and right of the head. There just aren’t words to describe how amazing it is to see from all of those eyes at once.

My view covers approximately 120 degrees in front, up, down, left, and right, for a total of 240 degrees in all. That lets me hold both the heavens and the earth in my hand at once.

I gain that humanly-impossible vision by combining my Lives with the machine.

Right now, I can see the blue sky, the city of Paris beyond the mock battlefield’s walls, and the earthen ground.

This is one of the reasons I like piloting Heavy Barrels.

A Knight Striker has power and is duty-bound to protect, but this vision is the greatest freedom.

''That which is filled with the blue sky.

''That which is covered by the red dirt.

''I name thee heaven and earth.

''Where the wind howls bravely.

''Where the sand dances gently.

''I view thee as heaven and earth.

''So that no one would grieve again.

''That which is endless and cannot be grasped.

''That which is vast and cannot be held.

''I am with thee.

I really understand what that Knight Striker song is trying to say.

I mean, the winter sky is so very tall. Well, I’m not sure what I’m Signing here now, but while the skies in America were always unbelievably vast and unimaginably blue, the sky of Paris is something else entirely.

I might just not be used to the rules of Signing since I’m not a resident of Paris, but I feel like you can’t see Paris’s sky unless you’re searching for it. I can probably see it by Pointing an azure sky, but it takes Signing to see the blue sky I really want to see.

So seeing Paris’s sky brings me joy when I look up and see it.

And looking to the sky with a Heavy Barrel’s vision only strengthens that feeling.

If I confirm my own presence here below the sky, I feel like I’ll suddenly find the sky is gone.

I raised my head and looked into the sky. It felt like I could see the wind. Yeah.

But the other side really was slow. What were they doing?

I’ll Point real quick.

<There is still no sign of anything leaving the boys storage room.>

Whelp. Meanwhile, I came out almost immediately and everyone’s waiting. The girls are probably shouting from the colosseum stands by now. I don’t feel like Pointing that, though.

Ugh.

I should’ve claimed I was on my period and skipped out on this.

But I really do like Write Bringing into Heavy Barrels.

I’d better get an S instead of just an A for this class.

Oh, I should Point.

<The side door to the boys storage room is slowly opening to the side and a male Heavy Barrel made from black steel is unsteadily walking out.

It is an HMP035 22-LL Guerre.>

That’s the average male Heavy Barrel from World War One. It looks a little shakier than when I saw it last year, but I guess you can’t expect much when there’s a boy piloting it. Both of these are probably used military models. After all, there were signs of some insignia being scraped off next to the ladder up to the Study on mine.

The other one is probably the same.

And…huh? The instructor’s came out too, but…

<It is an MMP055 07-LC Jagdhund.>

Huh? A Middle Barrel? Even if we have this power restriction, are they mocking us?

And that body. It can’t be…

<There is a sign of major repairs to the center of the Jagdhund’s chest armor.

It was likely damaged in some kind of battle recently.>

Oh, crap. Was that damage from me? If so, this could be bad. It’s going to be really awkward. I hope he doesn’t have any regrets.

Well, no one’ll find out as long as they don’t read this memory bank. I’ll just erase it a bit as I cancel the Write Bring.

I wrote some oddly mellow stuff toward the start.

<The boys and the professor have entered the stands. The professor is speaking in a loud voice:

“Now, please follow the instructor’s lead and engage in some light sparring.”

The Jagdhund nodded and raised its wooden sword.>

He’s aiming it toward me?

…Hmm.

Does that mean he chose me as an opponent before the boy? I’m going to remain suspicious and Sign.

Have you heard about last year’s festival from someone? Perhaps that a female Knight Striker from this school humiliated a German Panzer Kavalier?

Well, it doesn’t matter either way. I’ll just say what I have to say.

“I’m looking forward to the lesson you have for me.”

So let’s get this started!!