Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter5 (section)

===Part 4===

Hazel shot upright. She opened her eyes and faced forward.

She was in a small room.

“Where am I?”

This still didn’t feel real. Her senses still felt the wind and heard all those people’s voices.

When she wrapped her arms around herself, she naturally pressed her right hand against her left shoulder and recalled who she was.

Her hand held the Wheel of Destiny card that had been in her left breast pocket.

“Oh…”

She recalled what had led up to that dream.

Sweat rapidly soaked her entire body.

She was sitting on a bed. She had gotten drunk and fallen asleep.

The flowers in the vase on the side table looked awfully red and she found she was fully awake now.

She quickly checked her watch and found it was 8 PM. It was dark outside the window.

“We need to leave here with General Pale at 10 and get to Cologne.”

She recalled something else too.

…''When am I going to invite Berger to join the AIF?

She didn’t know what she should do there. But…

“I should at least talk with him.”

Just as she managed to calm her breathing, the door burst open.

“!?”

She looked over to find Berger standing in the doorway. He looked down at her with no readable expression on his face.

“We’re leaving in an hour.”

With that brief report, he gave a flip of his black coat, walked past her, and sat at the foot of the bed. The bed shook a bit. He had his back to her and did not look back.

“…”

She sat with her legs folded underneath her, placed her hands on her knees, and stared at his back.

“Um.”

She hesitated.

“Berger?”

No response. But she waited a bit.

After a breath or two and still nothing, she decided he wasn’t just being slow to respond. This time, she spoke more firmly.

“Berger.”

“What? Keep it quick.”

She could not see any tone color at all coming from him. But…

''This is fine,'' she insisted to herself.

He wouldn’t let her see his emotions, so she felt like she was walking blindly through the darkness as she opened her mouth. Instead of asking him directly, she took a different tack.

“Why won’t you join the AIF?”

“Were you asked to get me to join?”

He immediately saw through her.

“Um, well, uh.”

“They keep trying to do this. My answer is no. Remember that.”

When he was that blunt about it, she felt more miffed than disappointed.

“Why?”

“Why did you join? Why are you fighting a war, Hazel Mirildorf?”

That was more or less the same thing the woman in the green suit had asked her in her dream.

She had found something like an answer while playing the organ at the church today, but she still couldn’t put it to words.

Just like in ’37 and just like in her nightmare, she was unsure what to say.

“W-well…”

She was not entirely sure. She was not confident in her answer. He must have realized that because he said more without turning around.

“Sounds like you have a vague understanding, but it still hasn’t coalesced into something solid. That’s the same as not having an answer. I’m the same, Hazel. I have no idea what I want after the fighting is done. I find the means to be a lot more fun than the ends. That’s just who I am. But…”

“?”

“Three years ago, I said you belong on the other side of the wall. So why did you join the fight without even understanding why?”

He stood up.

And he slowly stood up on the foot of the bed to look down at her. With emotionless eyes.

“A girl who joined the AIF just because can’t convince me of anything. …You’re worthless if you don’t have a solid reason to work with the AIF. Without a reason, what happened 5 years ago, 3 years ago, and now are all meaningless. Including getting the Sylphide killed.”

“––––!”

The way he phrased that last part made her get up on her knees and throw a slap toward him. But…

“How dumb are you? Did you really think you could hit me?”

His right hand caught her wrist before she could reach his cheek.

His hard fingers dug into her skin.

She could not resist his grip at all, so her brow wrinkled in pain.

“Hazel. I can’t hear you, Hazel Mirildorf. The reason you began to fight and the reason you continue to fight must be there inside you. But I have that much inside me too.”

He pulled her wrist toward him.

His face moved toward her. The blue eyes behind his sunglasses were simply there with no emotion or strength in them.

The only thing she saw in those eyes was her own reflected face.

There was anger on that face.

That realization surprised her, but his voice ignored all that.

“But is that all you have? You, the one who said she didn’t want to run away? Do you see what I mean, Hazel Mirildorf?”

He let go while pushing her wrist down. She lost her balance and landed back on her butt. He bent over to peer into her face.

“Face reality, Hazel. At 11 tonight, Project Millennium will bomb Cologne to the ground. Germany’s promised millennium of peace will be destroyed, people will die, and a city will be wiped off the map. Can you tell me what needs to be done after that kind of destruction? Well, can you?” He took a breath. “If you can’t, then stay there on the other side of the wall, Hazel. You can’t fight in the war from there, but you can find your answer. So once this mission is over…”

“Please stop,” she said, trying to keep him from finishing his sentence.

But he did finish it.

“Quit the AIF and stay far away from me.”

“…You’re lying.”

Hazel regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth.

But it was too late. She had rejected it all with two simple words.

“You’re lying,” she said again. More strongly this time. “You’re lying!”

“No, I’m not. I’m speaking from my heart.”

“You are not. I don’t believe you,” she snapped back on reflex, shoulders tense with anger. “You’re angry. That’s why you keep saying these awful things.” Tears filled her eyes. “You’re lying! You were so nice to me before…”

“Because it was my job to be, Hazel.”

He immediately shut that line of reasoning down, so she shook her head.

“Please join the AIF, Berger.”

“You’re being illogical. Weren’t you listening? I just said I won’t join and that you should leave.”

“But you’re lying. You never open up to anyone and you always ask the questions without answering any. So I know you must be lying this time too. Everything you say is the opposite of the truth!” she said. “Three years ago, you said there was a wall between us and we would never see each other again, remember? But we did see each other again. So how can I believe you when you said there was a wall between us?”

“You’re too naïve. You think you can trust me when we’ve only met a few times?”

He smiled bitterly.

He grabbed her collar with his prosthetic hand.

She tensed her shoulders a bit and looked up at him as he moved his face even closer.

“Then let’s play a game, Hazel. You claim you can trust me, but you were afraid of me once, weren’t you?”

“…Eh?”

“You Altered when I kissed you above the North Sea. It depends on the specific Werecat, but they generally Alter when their pulse races and they sense danger. That means you didn’t trust me in that moment.”

Hazel gasped.

“Th-that was…”

He silenced her with his lips.

It was less a kiss than an alcohol-smelling touch reaching her lips and tongue.

…''!?

The next thing she knew, he had pushed her back on the bed.

He propped himself up on his hands placed below her arms and looked down at her.

“I don’t know what kind of work the AIF gives its female members, but female spies sometimes use their bodies to gain intel and trust. That’s how this game works.”

He removed his sunglasses and tossed them aside.

“If you Alter, you’ll be safe. But that means you don’t trust me and can’t satisfy me, so I won’t join the AIF and you’ve failed your mission for the AIF. So give up.”

He took a breath and stuck his pendant in his shirt’s breast pocket.

Then he reached for the stomach of Hazel’s clothing.

As a Werecat, lying on her back with her stomach exposed inspired an instinctual fear.

…''My stomach.

His fingers ran along her clothing until they reached the waistband. He grabbed the knot there.

“But if you can accept me like this, I’ll be satisfied and it means you trust me. …Then I’ll join the AIF.”

With that, he undid the waistband.