Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

The slowly setting sun’s light fell on the forest and painted a mottled pattern on the unpaved road below the trees. A single set of tire tracks had been dug into a mountain road barely big enough for a car.

A wooden sign on the side of the road gave the name of this land: Borderson.

Climbing the mountain road led to a wheat field on a hill and then back into the forest.

The roar of a motorcycle shook the forest.

Berger drove his BMW 750cc with the sidecar attached.

He shifted gears with his new prosthetic left arm.

The motorcycle remained below the branches for a while, but without warning, it emerged into the open.

In that clearing, the mountain road vanished and was replaced by the entrance to a small village.

He braked by letting the motorcycle slide to the side. The tires dug into the sand and slid until it stopped, pushing the sidecar out ahead of it.

“Here I am. It’s been a full year now, hasn’t it?”

He looked ahead to the gate into the village.

The gate was formed from a wooden arch with a mossy stone wall on either side of it.

The gate was closed.

He saw two colors out in front of the gate. The gold and purple were from the same woman.

The gold was her long hair rippling gently in the wind. The purple was the uniform of an AIF company officer.

The eyes below her blonde hair were shut, but they were directed toward Berger through her tinted glasses. Her eyebrows were flat and her mouth showed no sign of a smile or protest.

She stood in front of the old, discolored gate with her arms crossed.

Her red lipsticked lips opened to speak.

“You called me here from the village’s only telephone, but I don’t recall receiving any orders from the AIF.”

“I’m not here for you as an AIF member,” said Berger atop the rumbling motorcycle. “I’m here for you as a Buster.”

“And?”

“Hazel was captured. I know she was taken to the Geheimnis Agency’s Hamburg Base. I’m about to go rescue her with Scwharz Löwe, but it’s too much for me to handle on my own. Help me, Lehrer.”

Lehrer did not bat an eye in response. She only tilted her head a bit.

“Is she really that important?”

“Do I really need to answer that?”

[[Image:City_v06d_145.jpg|thumb]]

Their exchange of questions was followed by silence.

The only sounds were the leaves rustling in the breeze and the rumbling of the motorcycle.

A rooster crowed once from the direction of the village.

Then a solid sound joined it. The sound of feet on dirt. Lehrer had pulled herself away from the gate and started walking.

She uncrossed her arms and brushed her hair back.

The solid soles of her boots stepped on the dirt, crushed the grass, and trod on pebbles for seven steps.

At the center of the village square, she looked up into the sky with her eyes still closed.

The blue afternoon sky was found there.

It could be seen all around from between the forest and the gate. Quickly blowing clouds decorated the blue on their path from east to west.

Lehrer viewed the sun setting in the west and spoke into the sky.

“The color of the sky remains unchanged by all the wars we fight. Same for the color of the clouds and the wind.” She spread her arms. “Berger, why not live in this village with the rest of us? This village doesn’t change either. It doesn’t care what the people of this world do any more than the sky above does. If it is destroyed, it will be destroyed, but if it will live, it will remain as it is. Isn’t now the best time to cut your losses?”

“No, thanks,” said Berger. “That wouldn’t be cutting my losses – it’d be dodging responsibility. And…if my gut instinct is right, you have to go save Hazel. It’s just who you are.” He pointed at her. “In fact, you already intend to. But…you just wanted to mess with me first.”

“You sound awfully confident in your assessment. Did you think you had read my mind?”

“I know all too well what it feels like to be toyed with by a mischievous cat. It only just happened to me half a day ago.”

“I see. Then I have a question for you: what do you think you can say to get me to go with you?”

“Well…”

“I have just one hint, but it’s a big one: call my name.”

Lehrer’s tone was light and Berger nearly responded on reflex.

“…”

But he crossed his arms instead.

His expression had changed. The amusement was gone and his brow was wrinkled.

“Yes, think about it,” she said. “That is the correct starting point. You know now isn’t the time to speak without thinking, don’t you?”

“You’re right,” he said. “You’re exactly right. If my gut instinct is right, you couldn’t be more right. Doing this without thinking would be an insult to how long you’ve been waiting.”

Lehrer smiled a little.

“Yes, think about how I am here, how I can be here, and how that connects back to everything you have seen: the Berlin Conflict, the Sylphide Incident, and everything else.”

Berger didn’t even nod this time.

He leaned forward and rested his elbow on the motorcycle’s tank, as if to say he understood all that. He rested his cheek in his right hand, held his left hand to his head, and glanced over at Lehrer.

She had lowered her gaze to view him through closed eyes. She kept her hands clasped in front of her hips.

She stood there silently with the sunlight casting her shadow on the ground.

She was waiting for him to speak.

“…”

He straightened up and his lips moved to say something, but he didn’t go through with it.

He looked away from her.

His lips again tried to speak, but no voice emerged. Those words weren’t what he needed to say. This was the hesitant silence of knowing the right answer but not knowing if he should actually say it out loud.

Every time he silently said something, his options narrowed.

Finally, his gaze met hers again. When he saw her closed eyes, a flicker of anger flashed across his face.

A moment later, his lips began to speak a woman’s name.

“Haz-”

But he stopped partway through.

He looked forward and saw her smiling.

That smile got him to speak a certain Urban Name as his answer.

“Lehrer.”

He breathed a hesitant sigh toward the ground and finished his answer.

“That’s your name now.”

He stopped there and watched her with no excess intensity in his gaze.

She opened her mouth a bit and deepened her smile when she heard that name.

She showed off her white teeth and nodded.

“Yes.” Her eyes bent in a smile. “That is correct.”

She nodded again as something fell from her right eye and down her cheek.

The sparkle that caught the sun and fell to the ground was a tear.

But that was the only one.

She did not bother wiping away the wet trail it left and walked forward. Her footsteps rang loud as she approached Berger. His gaze followed her as she made the dozen or so necessary steps without any hesitation.

She stopped next to the motorcycle, removed her shaded glasses, and put them in her breast pocket.

Then he saw her open her eyes.

Her left eye was a brown feline one, but her right one was a blue human one. Both were bent in a smile.

“I will summon the guardian dragon slumbering in the mountains. And in the meantime…” She smiled. “I have something important to tell you: Hazel is no longer qualified to be the Messiah.”

“…What?”

“Everything has fallen out of sync with the previous cycles. It all began when I chose to go to sleep within the Sylphide. And it truly changed last year when Hazel chose to return to America from Cologne and begin working as a Tuner. Just like I had hoped she would.”

Tension filled Berger’s face.

“What are you talking about? What does Cologne and being a Tuner have to do with being qualified to be the Messiah?”

“I imagine the only people who know the truth are me, Pale and M. Schrier who I explained my predictions to last year, and the Geheimnis Agency’s commander. That commander is working very hard right now to not betray everyone, to not disappoint them, and to make sure the Panzerpolis Project can fulfill its true purpose. Because destiny has gone off the rails.”

She took a breath.

“All because Hazel chose the path of regeneration over the path of destruction back at Cologne.”


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