Editing City Series:Volume8a Chapter9 (section)

===Aoe’s Continued Sight Mode: In North DT’s Southfield District===

'''<Aoe’s Over Reload>

Aoe ducked as the gunfire whizzed by overhead.

The cacophony of gunpowder continued.

It shifted downwards to pursue his duck.

So he dodged to the left.

He slammed his right fist against the lowering barrel, but…

“No effect!?”

The punch thrown at the gun barrel bounced right off.

The force of his punch was sealed away.

<nowiki><I’m</nowiki> not even allowed self-defense!?>

He threw all of his body’s strength leftward in order to escape.

'''“Mh.”

A shattering glass sound came from the back of his head as he Downloaded his center of gravity.

He quickly shifted his coordinate left by taking a crouching leap.

He hadn’t Downloaded his legs, so the movement was a bit awkward.

But he still managed to arrive in front of the younger knight who had drawn his sword.

He exhaled as a sword strike swung down from above.

He stood up.

As he did so, he moved back and left, shifting himself just enough to leave a slight gap between him and his enemy.

The sword grazed his right shoulder as it dropped down.

He heard the blade swish through the air while he thought.

<If none of my attacks will work…>

He placed his right hand atop the knight’s hands holding the sword.

He matched the speed of the lowering arms and pulled back toward himself.

The knight lost his balance.

The subprogram calculating his center of gravity for the downward swing had been thrown off by Aoe’s hand.

The knight staggered forward.

“Oh.”

When the knight planted a leg in front of him to catch himself, Aoe kicked that leg outwards with his right foot.

That would have tripped the knight had it worked, but Aoe’s kicking foot bounced off.

“Even that counts as an attack!?”

He swiftly pulled his leg back and shifted his body left.

The staggering knight passed him by on the right side.

Aoe kept his eyes to the right.

Because the middle-aged knight with a submachinegun had been there earlier.

He gathered strength in his toes and swung his body forward, toward the castle gate.

The bullets arrived just as his feet stepped on the bridge’s wooden floor.

The gunfire sounded light, like it was only a toy.

Eight shots flew and one grazed his right cheek, telling him these were not just a threat or a show of force.

They were meant to kill.

Since PC Body’s used Lives resonance to function, an injury would be sent back to the Lives data. If he was shot, it was all over. The Existence Lives of his real body could not be backed up because that would trigger a resonance breakdown. He only ever had just the one life.

He kept that fact in mind as he moved right, toward the middle-aged knight.

He sensed the sword knight recovering behind him.

But he didn’t care. He kept forward with a click of his tongue. He approached the middle-aged knight.

That knight moved the barrel of his submachinegun to pursue Aoe as he approached.

Aoe charged straight ahead.

The gun had him in its sights, but he didn’t dodge. He kept approaching, as if pressing his forehead against the muzzle. But his eyes were on the knight’s trigger finger.

He saw that finger pull the trigger.



'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Aoe crouched in that instant.

The bullet grazed his bangs and the sparks flying from the muzzle singed his hair.

But the bullet flew past him.

Aoe knew the sword knight was standing there.

The 9mm bullet, which was designed to supply an impact rather than pierce, hit the knight behind him.

“Gah!”

He heard a scream behind him and felt the air move.

<That blew him away.>

His thought appeared in his window as he checked ahead of him.

The middle-aged knight was staring behind Aoe in shock.

The artificial emotion subprogram produced a nice expression for the shock of shooting his ally.

But that expression was erased soon enough.

His management program as a guard had taken precedence over the artificial expression display.

“Kh!”

His expression was now one of anger.

He glared down at the man crouched in front of him.

Aoe said nothing in reply. He was accustomed to having angry looks directed his way.

The knight swung his gun down and fired again.

The stream of bullets pursued crouched Aoe, but it soon stopped. The gun was out of ammo.

The middle-aged knight tossed the gun aside with panicked movements and reached the same hand toward the sword on his back.

He grabbed the hilt.

A sword strike was coming.

But Aoe did not run away.

He reached both his hands out and grabbed the knight’s hand on the hilt.

And he pulled himself toward it.

“Mh!!”

With a loud grunt, he slid his hips forward while practically swinging from the knight’s arm. He slid right between the middle-aged knight’s legs.

He kept his hands on the hilt as he pulled with his full arm strength.

The knight was already swinging the sword down, so he ended up having his arm jammed between his own legs.

“Oh.”

As soon as he was through the knight’s legs, Aoe’s hands were repelled by the hand they were holding.

This had been deemed an attack.

But the determination had come too late. Having his center of gravity rapidly moved down and between his legs caused the knight to trip. And he rolled, his head thrown forward.

He tumbled in a circle and then his head crashed into the ground.

The metallic sound of his equipment sounded like splashing water.

Aoe stood up and checked behind him.



'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

The middle-aged knight remained motionless after crashing headfirst to the ground.

The shot knight lay collapsed on his back.

And the two dogs fed lemons were retching and unable to fully get the fruit out of their mouths.

“I wish I could say I was sorry,” said Aoe before taking a breath. He wasn’t even out of breath.

''I can do this,'' he concluded with a nod, looking to the front of the collapsed middle-aged knight’s hips.

A ring of keys was attached to his belt with something like a carabiner.

Aoe crouched down and removed it.

Then he looked to the castle.

Telyb had told him he needed to enter the castle and reach the communications tower if he was going to fight.

“Monkey, do you have a map of the castle?”

Monkey tilted his head but opened the backpack. He dove partway inside and eventually pulled out a thin paper folded in quarters.

Aoe took it and found it was an old sightseeing pamphlet giving some history of the castle. It had a map of the areas open to the public, but no real details.

But he frowned when he unfolded it.

“What is this?”

The map was blank. It had nothing on it. A window opened instead.

'''<This product is updated in real-time based on a contract with the royal family, but its contents have been temporarily frozen because the Akalabeth family cannot be reached.>

“I can’t use this.”

He clicked his tongue, balled up the useless paper, and threw it away. Then he frowned and asked Monkey a question.

“Can you send a word mail?”

Monkey shook his head.

“Are you saying the enemy has complete control of communications in this area?”

Monkey nodded his head.

“Damn,” muttered Aoe with another look to the castle. His target was in the east.

An antenna dish sat atop the stone tower on the east corner.

That tower acted as the external communications facility. He had to take control of that, work around any privileges issues, and directly contact the Yard.

“It shouldn’t take long to get there.”

With that, he took off running.

He soon passed through the castle’s entrance and made his way inside the walls.

'''<Aoe’s Sight Mode has ended>