Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 7===

Meanwhile, Heivia Winchell was running through the “city” as the sun began to set.

The situation was as follows:



While the blue taxi waited at a simple traffic signal of the sort used at construction sites, a middle-aged man dove in from the side with enough force to break the window.

“What the hell? Why do things like this always have to happen to me!?”

Thinking the man might be a robber, Heivia pulled out a large handgun from the holster at his waist, but then the man spoke while bleeding from the face.

“You’re a Legitimacy Kingdom soldier, right!?”

“What?”

“I have something to report! I’ve run across some terrible information. You need to do something!!”

“Wait, wait, wait. No!! The peace of Oceania is for police special forces to deal with, not the military. This isn’t my job! And more importantly, I’m on my way to see a huge-breasted Santa!! This is no time to be dealing with-…!!”

“The Legitimacy Kingdom is their target!!”

“Seriously!? But it’s still not my jo-…”

“And the ones chasing me will be here soon.”

“Tell me that part first!!”

Heivia frantically pulled the middle-aged man out of the taxi and fled into the congested traffic. Just as he did, the blue taxi was turned to Swiss cheese by gunfire from multiple submachine guns. The driver had fled the instant the middle-aged man had jumped in so he was not hurt, but Heivia still did not like it.



As they ran, the middle-aged man said, “You can call me Royce. I’m an Information Alliance journalist.”

“No, don’t introduce yourself!! That almost guarantees I’ll be forced into getting involved in this!! Also, I don’t want to be on a first name basis with someone I just met when it’s a guy!”

“I would like to hand this off to you and get back to my normal life.”

“If you try to force this onto me and run off, I will ignore all war treaties and shoot you in the back!!”

It seemed Royce’s pursuers were following him in a vehicle. That gave them speed, but prevented them from making tight turns among the crowds of people and impromptu buildings. They realized the disadvantage the vehicle gave them and got out, but Heivia and Royce had gotten quite a ways away by then.

The two decided they had lost the enemy for the moment, so they exchanged information.

“So why is an Information Alliance journalist here?”

“Both for business and private reasons.” As he spoke, Royce lightly touched the cell phone hanging from a strap around his neck. “My daughter was deployed here. I wanted to see what kind of place it was for myself.”

“Deployed? So is she in the military?”

Heivia looked skeptical, but he then recalled that he himself was a minor out on the battlefield due to the situation in his noble family. The average age of those in the military had dropped, so it was not too surprising.

The reason Royce was subconsciously toying with his cell phone may have been because he had its background set to a photo of his daughter.

“Yes, and she hasn’t even entered junior high school yet. She may be a bit too skilled,” said the self-proclaimed journalist. “At her age, she should still be dreaming of being a princess of the Legitimacy Kingdom… The adults around her egg her on just for fun which has led to her domineering speech patterns and laugh. The way things are going, she will keep laughing loudly on top of the stage forever. I have no idea how she acts within her unit, though.”

“Does that have anything to do with why you are being chased?”

“No, the current situation has to do with my job.”

“What were you doing?”

“My original goal was to do some civilian level research into whether the Information Alliance military is performing its duties suitably. That said, all I can really do is intercept radio transmissions.”

Hearing that, a bitter look appeared on Heivia’s face.

“Did you pick up someone else’s transmission?”

“It wasn’t from any of the world powers. It was from an anti-establishment group. It seems they are opposed to the overwhelming firepower of Objects, and my curiosity got the better of me. I analyzed the signal and located a base of theirs. They noticed me when I was observing it from afar. And you can see where that got me.”

“An anti-Object group,” muttered Heivia in annoyance.

He knew people with those views existed all around the world and he could hardly deny that the destruction of the Oceanian military nation had caused such sentiments to spread. Also, Quenser and Heivia…or rather, the stories of them destroying Objects had pumped vitality into the anti-Object groups whether the two boys wanted it or not.

“So these people want to destroy an Object, and they just so happened to choose our Legitimacy Kingdom Object as their target?”

“If the information I intercepted is correct, yes.”

“How do they plan to do it?” asked Heivia. “Destroying an Object is easier said than done. Even if they attack it while it sits motionlessly in the maintenance area, they aren’t likely to even damage it. Even if they hit it directly with a large H-bomb, they can’t get through that armor. How are they going to destroy that monstrous weapon?”

“There is a way,” cut in Royce. “If there wasn’t, I would not be working this hard to stop them…and they would not bother hunting me down to stop me.”