Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 9===

Ayami Cherryblossom, the Object maintenance chief of the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, stopped her off-road vehicle and jumped out onto the ground.

Ayami was commonly referred to as the old maintenance lady.

She had originally been from the Capitalist Corporations.

The mindset of all value being based on economics and money had deeply dyed her heart and she saw nothing wrong with the preference of human rights being based on the size of people’s bank accounts. Even when she had trained in Object maintenance, she had held no pride in the actions themselves. She had held pride in the profit she gained from the actions.

When she had first learned of the actions of her daughter and son-in-law, she had simply thought they were being stupid. Talk of providing agricultural support for areas that did not have enough food may have brought tears to people’s eyes, but it had no more value than that. Going through with it was nothing more than spending actual money on something that would bring no profit. In the Capitalist Corporations, even a young child who had yet to start school would tell you that was a waste of money.

When her daughter and son-in-law’s actions had led to them being chased out of the Capitalist Corporations, Ayami had punched her own daughter. But then she had grabbed her hand. She had been unable to abandon them. She had realized that attachment that went beyond economics or money may have been a part of what led that couple to provide that agricultural support.

They could not stay in the Capitalist Corporations. They had to flee to some other land. During that flight, she had become intensely aware of the presence of the giants that were the world powers.

And this went beyond realizing just how great a shadow the Capitalist Corporations cast.

She also realized that the Legitimacy Kingdom they were fleeing to cast just as great of a shadow.

Even once they reached that goal, it would not be a happy life awaiting them.

Whether they turned back or continued on, nothing but hardships awaited them.

But…

The more she was trampled on by those giants, the stronger one feeling grew within her.

She was determined to protect her family from those large shadows no matter what.

And she would even use the military or Objects to do that.

“Shikibu!! Iekazu!! Are you in there!?”

The old lady shouted some names in front of a family apartment building. Even in that peculiar area of the city, that apartment building was different than those around it. It was a pale prefab building just like the others, but it was a proper high rise building. It was fully equipped with elevators and self-locking doors. The walls and floors had the same double-layer insulation usually used in windows. The building was not made of prefab because of a lack of resources. The entire city was made that way out of choice. The nameplates and signs were a mix of hiragana, katakana, kanji, and other scripts, all of which were a strange sight in the Legitimacy Kingdom. It was just the type of thing that would irritate Prizewell City Slicker.

The old lady called the names of her daughter and son-in-law, but received no response. However, she had no time to wait around. She climbed the stairs to the third floor and headed for a specific door.

At the same time, her daughter, Shikibu, opened the front door.

The black-haired woman in her late twenties looked utterly shocked when she saw the old lady.

“What are you doing here, mother? I thought you didn’t get time off until-…”

“Is Iekazu here? And what about Orihime, my granddaughter!?”

“Of course not. This is a weekday. Papa is at work and our daughter is at elementary school. Honestly, has the military left you unable to tell what day of the week it is?”

“Contact them,” said the old lady, sounding at her wits’ end. “Hurry!!”

“What? What? Ehh? If you’re coming over to play, you should call ahead, mother.”

The old lady forced her way in the front door and picked up the receiver of the landline phone located near the entrance. She called the number she had memorized beforehand, but…

“No good. The phone isn’t going through.”

For an instant, she thought the 24th had cut the phone lines, but that was not it. Things were getting noisy out front. Objects were over 50 meters tall, so their advance would be visible even from afar.

“The phone lines must be congested…”

“What is going on?” asked Shikibu while blinking. “The TV suddenly switched over to a test broadcast and then the internet wouldn’t connect no matter what page I tried to go to. And I needed to check a recipe for lunch.”

“The home country must have cut it off to prevent a panic. They’re cutting everything off starting with the thickest lines. Even if it wasn’t congested, we probably couldn’t use the phone.”

“?”

“Shikibu, remain calm and listen to what I have to say.”

“You’re the one that seems to be panicking.”

“Some Objects will be arriving here soon,” said the old maintenance lady as slowly as she could manage. “It is a formation made up of the Indigo Plasma and 6 others. The Legitimacy Kingdom military cannot stop them!! We need to get out of here as quickly as possible! Those monstrous national level weapons will soon turn this city into a sea of flames!!”

“Eh? Wait…” Shikibu put on a smile. She had yet to fix her bad habit from the Japanese Islands. “What do you mean Objects will be arriving? I didn’t hear anything about a parade.”

The old lady ignored her and pulled out her radio.

She set it to a military frequency and simply turned up the volume.

“Hurry up the repairs on the Baby Magnum!! No one expects you to completely fix it! At the very least, we need a single main cannon functioning. The Indigo Plasma’s formation is headed toward the immigrant residential city as we speak. If we take too long, we can’t catch up!!”

Shikibu’s smile remained.

But she started trembling while still smiling.

“Where are Iekazu and Orihime?” asked the old lady with a serious expression. “We need to get them and leave the city before those 7 Objects arrive!! You need to make your preparations. You have 10 minutes!!”

“Wait. What is going on!? What is going on!? What is going on!?”

“Do you really think I have time to explain everything!?”

“We need to tell the neighbors… No, not just them!! We need to tell everyone in the apartments…no, everyone in the city to escape!!”

Shikibu suddenly stopped speaking after that.

The old lady had slapped her.

“We can’t. We would never make it in time. Even if they took us seriously, that would just lead to widespread panic and traffic congestion. All forms of transportation would grind to a halt and no one would be able to escape.”

“So you’re saying we should abandon them!?”

“Curse me all you want.” With her daughter glaring at her like that, the old lady took a challenging step forward. “But I will protect my family. I will do anything to do so. If it will make it more difficult for you to escape, I am prepared to leave this entire city to die.”

“You can’t…”

“Then are you willing to abandon Iekazu and Orihime? If they learn the truth, everyone living around here will fight to take any vehicle they can find. Once that happens, no one will be able to collect those two. Nor would we be able to escape ourselves!! Are you fine with that!? Are you willing to sacrifice your own family to rescue some complete strangers!?”

“…”

“I am not. That is why I went as far as to run away from my unit to come here. What about you? Are you fine with letting Iekazau and Orihime be burnt away to nothing? I know what Objects can do. Believe me when I tell you this: Object bombardments are relentless. They do not even leave a corpse to be buried.”

Without speaking a word, Shikibu struck the wall once.

The loud noise silenced the old lady and Shikibu quickly headed further into the room. She was likely headed to pull a suitcase from a closet.

They had no time.

A panic was already beginning within the city.

If they did not act before it had a serious effect on transportation, they would be trapped within the city. If that happened, they would be on the receiving end of a bombardment from 7 Objects.

After about 5 minutes, Shikibu returned to the entranceway.

“I’m ready.”

“Let’s go.”

“I think I am doing something horrible.”

“Do not bear that weight. This is my sin. Those 7 Objects should have been stopped by my unit.”

They had no time to wait for the elevator. They used the stairs to head quickly down to the first floor where they climbed aboard the military off-road vehicle. The rubber of the tires screeched across the road surface as they took off.

“Who’s closer, Iekazu or Orihime?”

“Papa would be closer. But it isn’t that different. They’re both within 5 kilometers of here.”

“Then we’ll start with Iekazu. Tell me how to get to his company.”

She drove the off road vehicle while ignoring traffic lights and one-way signs. However, no one seemed to care. They had their own things to worry about. A panic was already beginning. If they had stopped at a red light, people would likely have tried to jump in through the windows.

“How could this be happening?” muttered Shikibu.

The old lady ignored her and continued pressing down on the accelerator.

Iekazu worked at a mid-size menswear company. The company rented out a portion of a double-layer prefab building.

“How do we call for him?”

“Even if the external lines are down, the internal lines should still work. Where is the company’s reception desk?”

“There is a general reception desk on the first floor. Visitors for any of the tenants make a request to the external operator and…”

“Then head there. Make something up about forgetting to give him his bento or whatever. Just get them to let you use the internal phone. Have Iekazu come down to the first floor and then bring him out here.”

“What about you, mother?”

“If we both left, the off-road vehicle would be stolen. You go. Or do you have the guts to use this to keep any thieves away?”

As she spoke, the old lady pulled something out from the area next to the gear stick. It was a Legitimacy Kingdom military submachine gun.

Shikibu paled and nodded repeatedly before getting out of the vehicle and running toward the general reception desk on the first floor.

The old lady watched Shikibu through the clear automatic door for a while.

Finally, Shikibu returned with a man wearing a suit. Like a proper employee, he was wearing the menswear made by his own company. The old lady clicked her tongue lightly when she saw the timid-looking man.

“You took too much time.”

“I have heard the general situation, but…” started the man.

“We don’t have time to discuss this,” said the old lady as she slammed down the accelerator, sending the vehicle off once more. “I can think of no reason why it is okay to let Orihime die.”

“…”

The spread of confusion in the city accelerated as time passed. The old lady had no idea what they were thinking, but it seemed some idiots had even set fire to some buildings. She could see black smoke in the distance. She doubted there was much worth stealing in Orihime’s elementary school, but she still felt an unpleasant pressure in her chest. There was no longer any safe place in the city.

“You’re going too fast!! Slow down! You’re going to hit someone!!” shouted the man.

“Shut it, you fool!!”

“Waah!! That man is shouting something. Wait, what is that he’s pointing this way? That’s a gun!”

The old lady ignored him and pressed down even harder on the accelerator. The needle on the speedometer made a large jump. A few dry gunshots rang out, but the vehicle was not so much as scratched. The man out there had likely not actually been willing to shoot someone.

They arrived at the elementary school.

They drove right in through the front gate, made a sharp turn into the faculty parking lot, and came to a quick stop. It seemed classes had already been called off, but the children were not being let out. They could see a lot of faces peering out through the windows. They were all filled with worry.

Given the confusion in the city, the faculty had made the right decision. But it was not enough. That would not save the children from the seven Objects led by City Slicker.

“Shikibu, Iekazu. Go get Orihime. If the teachers try to get in the way, use this.” The old lady held a submachine gun out toward Iekazu. “But don’t pull the cocking lever. I’ve emptied the chamber. As long as you don’t do that, there is no way for it to fire.”

“Please, no. This has nothing to do with if it can actually fire.”

“Hmph. Just hurry it up. Otherwise those 7 Objects will get here first.”

“Yes, but…” 

Iekazu trailed off as he got out of the off-road vehicle.

“I know,” said the old lady, cutting him off.

Iekazu seemed unable to stand the worried gazes of the other children. The old lady felt the same. She would be leaving those children to die in order to allow her family to escape.

“I know!! But there is no perfect choice here!! Hurry up. We need to get Orihime out of here!!” she shouted.

Iekazu frantically ran off toward the door to the school. Shikibu followed him.

Suddenly, the old lady heard an ominous thundercloud-like rumbling in the distance. She grimaced. She recognized the noise. It was static electricity. That was the sound of the massive amounts of artificially produced static electricity that was used to float the giant form of an Object.

It was not coming from the Baby Magnum.

That left only one other option.

(Did we not make it in time…!?)

If she could hear it from where she was, the 7 Objects must have already arrived at the outskirts of the city. They could fire at any moment. The great slaughter in the name of language preservation activism would begin. Once it started, no one would be able to escape. Buildings would fall, overpasses would crumble, and all forms of transportation would be cut off. The off-road vehicle would be of no use whatsoever.

The old maintenance lady gritted her teeth.

And then…

“Hey, old lady! Are you still alive? The knights in shining armor have arrived!!”

The familiar voices of two boys came in over her radio.

“Hey, Quenser. This really is a horrible part to play!! No matter how you rationalize it, fighting seven Objects just isn’t normal!!”

“Shut up, Heivia. This is our big moment. Let’s finish this in some flashy way and become the heroes once again.”

“You always act like this! The nobles doing nothing but eating snacks back in the safe countries could learn a thing or two from you!!”

“Heivia, you always complain, but you always pull through in the end.”

(How can they do this?)

The situation was about as bad as it could get. Fighting even a single Object was considered out of the question, and this time there were seven. So how could they possibly choose to stand up to them? It did not help Quenser’s dream of becoming an Object designer in the slightest.

“Old lady, I can’t have you dying,” said Quenser. “There’s still so much I need to steal from you with my eyes. Losing such an excellent technician would get in the way of my dream. Not to mention…”

“…”

“Our princess is in a bad mood. She says she can’t get motivated if you aren’t doing her maintenance. If the Baby Magnum can’t fight, we’re done for. That’s why we need your help.”

“You…” muttered the old woman.

When she had seen the destroyed unit, the old lady had abandoned them all. She had violated military regulations to protect her family. But they were different. Froleytia’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion was still functioning.

They had not given up.

They were still working to save everyone in the city.

“We are about to engage the 24th Mobile Maintenance Battalion. Our objective is to defend the immigrant residential city! And it isn’t just us. The Baby Magnum will be running before long. So don’t you dare die until we blow away that bastard Prizewell City Slicker.”

The battle was about to begin.

A battle between seven cutting edge Objects and some puny flesh-and-blood soldiers.