Editing City Series:Volume8b Chapter17 (section)

===Aoe’s Sight Mode: In DT Castle===

'''<Aoe’s Over Reload>

Aoe’s vision linked with his mind.

He was falling onto his side atop the bed. This was due to the medical charm covering him from the left chest to the right flank. The charm was applied tight enough to tug at his skin and it was making his entire body tense while he lost his balance.

His left side fell downward. Instead of the sheets, he found a smoother fabric below him. It was light green silk. But he found something else below his head. It was like a warm pillow.

That was Yuo’s lap.

He looked up to see her. She was lowering her head with her eyes shut.

<Is she in Board Mode?>

When his thought appeared in a window, he realized he had been fully released from her management.

But I’m used to it now, appeared in the window while he focused on her face.

Her eyes were shut, but she still looked sleepy.

He guessed she hadn’t awoken from Board Mode yet.

But then he spoke aloud.

“That isn’t it.”

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

He saw her looking at him with eyes open.

<Took you long enough to notice. You really do forget things and fail to arrive in time, don’t you?>

<Just like with that earlier “negotiation”.>

“What, am I forgetting something about that?”

<You are. You didn’t notice that I’ve already lost that negotiation, did you?>

She peered into his eyes.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> saw it in my Board logs earlier.>

<nowiki><I</nowiki> made a promise with you on a Side Page, didn’t I?>

That reminded him of the Board conversation he had held with Yuo while in the castle’s central comm tower.

She smiled when she saw the look of realization on his face.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> said there was a very high chance it would happen if you risk your life to rescue me but get badly injured in the process and then I’m nursing you back to health and you whisper just the right words in my ear.>

“Yes, it was an oddly specific and unlikely request.”

<So what will you do?>

Aoe sighed and looked into her face.

“I’m not sure what to do.”

She smiled bitterly at that.

<Yes, I’m not sure what to do either. It’s a strange feeling.>

“Why’s that?”

<So much has happened all at once over the past few hours. After returning downstairs and crying, I’ve been reading through all my old logs in a word mail window. That did tell me why my Load Emblem changed, at least. But I still feel like I’m on shaky ground.>

She raised her head a bit and placed a hand on her chest.

<So, um, can I ask something of you?>

“What is it?”

She narrowed her eyes a little and looked him in the eye.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> can’t Grandload my Wish Bringer right now because I don’t have my voice program. I can Download into different parts of me with a 50% Load, but a 100% Grandload into my full body requires a specific starting point.>

“Sounds like you’re in a similar predicament to me earlier. Inconvenient, isn’t it?”

She nodded and glanced behind her.

The program window she hadn’t closed was still there.

<So my request is to modify our settings to link the starting points of our Grandloads. That way the attack power used to Grandload your Black Belt could be used for my Wish Bringer as well.>

“Huh? Is that really possible?”

<It is. It’s a bit of a kludge, but it would let me Grandload when you do. Of course, I won’t be able to remove the limiter on my voice since I don’t have my voice program, so it would only let me perform a 100% Load into my full body.>

Aoe considered it for a bit.

“Y’know, couldn’t you use that Mule one instead of forcing a link to use Wish Bringer? And if you can modify the Load starting conditions, can’t you change Wish Bringer’s starting condition to your hand, your boobs, or your butt?”

<Well, um, sort of, but…this is also practice.>

She blushed and hung her head.

He tilted his head as she tried to shrink as small as possible.

“Practice for what? Why is Grandloading along with mine useful?”

She looked straight down when he asked.

Eventually, she raised her flushed face and stared at him.

Her eyebrows were raised and her mouth shut in a serious expression. Some words were instantly displayed in a window above her.

<Practice for our joint Load Emblem.>



'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Aoe frowned with his head resting on Yuo’s lap.

She had just said linking activation of their Load Emblems was practice for a joint Load Emblem.

That meant she wanted to set up a joint Load Emblem with him. Or to put it another way…

“You want to perform a dangerous act with me?”

<Please don’t make this more embarrassing than it already is!>

She waved her hands to stop him from continuing and hung her head a bit.

<Mule supported the speed of my thoughts, but I didn’t want to use that anymore once I decided to leave the city. So if I’m going to set up a joint Load Emblem with you, I would be joining Black Belt with Wish Bringer’s power, not Mule’s>

“So you want to link Wish Bringer with Black Belt now as practice, even if you can’t sing?”

Aoe nodded and considered it.

A joint Load Emblem required authorization from both parties and it would mean directly linking their individual traits.

By joining their Load Emblems, Aoe’s fists could be directly affected by the programs activated by Yuo’s song and that could increase his accuracy.

<We couldn’t activate a joint Load Emblem right now since I don’t have a voice and it would probably be unstable without the finetuning I can’t complete on such short notice. We wouldn’t be able to use it in combat right away, so instead I will modify our existing Emblems to create a pseudo joint Load Emblem and base the real one on the feedback data I get from that. The modifications are basically the same as creating a multi-program activation, so I threw together a quick-and-dirty program just now.>

“What affect will this practice version have on me when we activate it?”

<Nothing will be any different for you. I will be limited to a 100% Load that doesn’t remove my limiter. But thanks to the typing skills I learned from Excel, I can still activate programs without my voice.>

She took a breath.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> will collect data on this modification and make sure the real joint Load Emblem works once I get my voice back from Mekton.>

“I see,” said Aoe, but then he realized something. “But creating a joint Load Emblem requires us to be together, doesn’t it? And doesn’t it require sharing our settings?”

He thought for a moment while viewing her face from close up.

Her eyebrows bent awkwardly and she looked away.

But after a sigh, he spoke clearly to her.

“I…”

He nodded.

“I want to create a joint Load Emblem with you.”

He scratched his head while still resting his head in her lap.

“Don’t make me say why that is.”

<nowiki><I</nowiki>-I won’t.>

She blushed and quickly nodded without lowering her eyebrows.

Her shoulders drooped a bit and she gulped in a breath. Her words appeared in a window a few seconds later.

<Then let’s open a window together and set that up later.>

“Mh? Together?”

He didn’t look happy about that and she narrowed her eyes.

<This is important for DT girls. It means we aren’t just being saved by the wonderful person at our side and we aren’t just saving them either – we’re sharing our power to help each other out.>

She laughed quietly and spoke through her thoughts.

<nowiki><I</nowiki>’ve been thinking about this for centuries now, you know?>

'''<Aoe’s Sight Mode has updated>