Editing City Series:Volume8b Chapter18 (section)

===Aoe’s Continued Sight Mode: At DT’s Amusement Park Artificial Lake===

'''<Aoe’s Over Reload>

The lake was an actual Top Page instead of an Other Page like the sky was.

Aoe’s opponent was already waiting for him.

100 yards away, at the center of the lake, the enormous man bent his arms in preparation.

Aoe responded with a fighting stance of his own, with Yuo at his back.

If his opponent was ready for a fight, he only had to charge on in.

He kicked off the water’s surface to continue forward.

He ran.



'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

“Mh!”

Running with his actions boosted seven times, he could clear the 100 yards in 1.5 seconds.

He ran, producing a wind that sent water splashing into the air.

He approached his enormous opponent in no time. Mekton took action when Aoe was 10 yards away.

He opened his right hand and readied the nails.

“Aoe!” he roared with a swing of the hand.

Aoe responded by leaning and then leaping to the right.

He made a right-angle course change, seeming to ignore his momentum. The wind whipped up and the water exploded from where he jumped.

But Mekton broke through the spray and pursued Aoe.

“Damn, he’s fast!”

Aoe turned himself toward Mekton to protect Yuo. By the time he landed from his leap and recovered his fighting stance, Mekton’s nails were about to reach him.

Mekton attacked with a fist and an open hand.

He sometimes attacked along straight lines and sometimes along curves.

Aoe sucked in a breath and backed away. He swung his upper body to the side, to the front, or to the back to dodge the claws.

While falling back and performing a sway back, he watched his enemy’s actions.

Mekton’s movements were powerful but sloppy.

But when Aoe swung his body to the side, Mekton stepped in the same direction.

When Aoe tried to go right, Mekton spread his legs to the right and attacked from the right.

When Aoe tried to go left, Mekton spread his legs to the left and attacked from the left.

That prevented Aoe from moving to the side, limiting him to backwards movement.

He needed a certain distance between them to step forward and make his attacks, but while falling back with all his might, he had trouble finding room to do anything else.

But whenever he again tried to move to the sides, an attack would stop him.

He couldn’t find a solution.

Just as he was getting irritated, the elbow of Mekton’s right arm lifted up. The man’s flank was visible.

“Kh!”

Aoe groaned and threw a right.

But his attack was blocked.

In that moment, he saw Mekton put up his guard before throwing a fist.

…''Did he intentionally leave an opening to lure me in!?

Aoe immediately rejected the idea. Mekton’s face showed none of the frustration of someone who lured in his prey only for that prey to escape. His nearly expressionless face only showed the twist of his lips from blocking Aoe’s punch.

He had simply blocked the attack before seeing it.

There was only one way to take action before seeing your opponent’s attacks.

“Are you predicting my movements!?”

Aoe had done the same to Mekton before.

By predicting your opponent’s pattern, you could use even greater offense or defense to keep them from moving or attacking.

Mekton replied while throwing a flurry of attacks.

“I saw it. Tribes lets me use the eyes of the 400.”

Another blow.

“…!”

Mekton’s right fist attempted to break through Aoe’s defenses from above.

Aoe crouched and leaned back while jumping backwards.

He had been driven back. No…

…''I’m still being driven back.

Aoe felt some panic as he considered his present situation.

His opponent was definitely responding to the beginnings of his actions. When he decided to move right or left, he made some kind of initial movement that acted as a signal and Mekton responded to that.

This was due to their previous battle and having 400 pairs of eyes on him.

Those initial movements were too subtle for the average person to make out.

At Aoe’s skill level, he wouldn’t give away his intent with his gaze.

Since the attack on Mekton’s open side had been blocked earlier, it had to be the movement of his shoulder in the instant he took aim.

…''So do I just have to punch without thinking or taking aim?

That wasn’t possible. That kind of subconscious attack only happened when you took a hit and lost consciousness or when you were caught off guard. That wasn’t going to happen right when he needed it.

And while he tried to figure out what to do…

<Senpai! You can’t keep falling back! You need to move forward!>

<nowiki><I</nowiki> know that, but when I try->

Aoe spoke with his thoughts until a question occurred to him.

…''What if I could make an attack disconnected from my will?

With that thought, he jumped backwards. Just before landing, he opened a window and tossed it to Yuo.

She gasped behind him.

Mekton charged in ahead of him.

He looked back toward Yuo, taking his eyes off of Mekton.

Yuo tapped him on the right shoulder.

That was the signal.

“!!”

Without thinking, he threw the exact same attack as before.

He aimed for Mekton’s right stomach.

By the time his body got moving, Mekton’s arm was already guarding his right stomach.

If Mekton blocked the punch, Aoe would be left open to attack immediately afterwards.

But Aoe threw the punch all the same.

His right shoulder shook, but it was his left fist that flew.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Mekton couldn’t react in time. He was guarding his right stomach, but Aoe’s fist hit the wall of muscle that was his unguarded left stomach.

“Kh!?”

What had looked like a right punch had been a left. The unreadable action made Mekton look up and fall back.

Aoe responded by moving forward and preparing to swing his left fist, so Mekton guarded his left side.

Yet it was Aoe’s right fist that jabbed into Mekton’s right stomach.

“What!?” shouted Mekton.

Aoe tilted his head to give Mekton a view of Yuo behind him.

Mekton’s eyes found the window floating over Yuo’s head as she typed on a see-through keyboard.

The windows said, '''<Yuo→Aoe: Body Control Setting: Left-Right Reversal: Run immediately after beginning of attack>

As soon as Aoe began to attack, his left and right sides switched out.

Suedomsa had used the same setting change to make Aoe trip in the castle’s audience chamber.

But while Grandloading and when he knew the reversal was coming…

“I can stay in control!” he shouted, taking a leaping step forward.

His attack landed, producing the sound of struck flesh.

Mekton bent backwards.

In that instant, something small fell from Mekton’s pocket and flew through the air.



'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

It was a program trigon. The one for Yuo’s voice.

The yellow trigon flew through the air in the 6 yards between Aoe and Mekton, veering a bit to the left.

“Is that Yuo’s voice!?”

Aoe hesitated.

If he moved to collect the trigon, Mekton would attack.

It was especially bad that the trigon was falling to his left. If he moved in that direction, he would be exposing his unguarded body to Mekton.

But if he didn’t collect it, Yuo’s voice would sink to the bottom of the lake.

<What do I do!?>

Mekton ignored Aoe’s thought and took action. He took a step forward.

'''“Ohh!”

Aoe made up his mind when he heard the great roar of Mekton’s will.

After confirming Mekton was throwing his right fist, Aoe reached his left hand back over his shoulder.

And he raised his voice.

'''“Yuo!”

A shattering glass sound came from his left hand and Yuo grabbed that hand. She did so slowly and with uncertainty in her grasp.

He didn’t have time to give the answer, so he simply squeezed her hand.

His will passed to her and she acknowledged it with her Text.

'''“Okay!”

Their actions were synchronized from there on.

Yuo canceled her coordinate setting and he swung her to the left by her hand.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

He ran forward, swinging her in an arc around him.

She rotated while skimming just above the water.

During that rotation, she collected her own voice in her hand.

At the same time, Aoe threw a kick toward Mekton.

“…!”

It landed.

In that instant, Aoe saw that Mekton’s right hand was not forming a fist. His hand was open and swept through empty air.

…''He was trying to collect the dropped program trigon?

''Why?'' wondered Aoe.

<That was his chance to win this. Why would he throw that away?>

But things were progressing too quickly to find an answer to that question.

Mekton was stopped by the counterattack.

At the same time, Yuo circled behind Mekton with her program in her grasp.

Aoe followed her. Like a pendulum, her weight tugged on him and spun him around behind Mekton.

All the movement occurred in an instant.

Aoe pulled on Yuo’s arm so she wouldn’t fall into the water and she used her see-through keyboard to reset her coordinate property to place herself behind him. She flicked the program trigon into the air with her thumb and her ferret caught it in his mouth and swallowed it.

Now she had them all.

And he heard a voice.

“Senpai! I have the feedback data I wanted! I’m going to activate the joint Load Emblem based on our shared memories!”

He heard her voice for the first time in a while and a window opened.

'''<Do you agree to share your settings with Yuo? Y/N>

He tapped the Y on the window and Yuo did the same behind him.

The window shattered into glowing dust and then he heard a song.

Yuo was singing along with the music played by Babel.

“I…”

He nodded and joined her with his will.

'''“I shall move ever forward!”

Aoe and Yuo’s joint Grandload activated.



'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

The first thing to appear was light.

The light that appeared around Aoe and Yuo came from a spiral of windows.

A group of 32 windows surrounded them and emblems appeared on Aoe’s fists and Yuo’s back.

The emblems were formed from a black light and they depicted a prophetess singing with a spear in the background. In the narrow space of the emblem, there were stars in the sky, a laurel wreath on her head, and determination on her face.

Aoe looked ahead with the new emblem on his fists.

The windows describing the special effects of their Word Race settings and the windows notifying them of the Grandload opened as he released his Text and Yuo’s voice did the same behind him.

They both asked the world to grant a simple wish.

'''“Come to me, power.”

The world responded.

<Grandload: Running Joint Grandload: Ultima: Preparing>

A window granted permission to the 256M Lives and granted them both power.

'''<Activating Joint Load Emblem>

Aoe and Yuo’s wills were answered by text strings racing from their emblems. They ran from Aoe’s fists to his elbows and from Yuo’s back to her shoulders. That text formed words.

'''■Type-Origin – God-class – Ultima■

'''<Activating Grandload of Aoe’s arm strength and Yuo’s voice: Loading all Lives and releasing upper limit on high-speed attacks>

As soon as the emblems were complete, Yuo sang and Aoe directed all of his strength forward.



[[Image:DT02_377.jpg|thumb]]

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Aoe sang. He belted out the contents of his heart as if teaching Yuo the lyrics.

'''“I shall move ever forward.”

He moved forward.

'''“I shall move forward.”

Mekton forcibly turned toward him.

'''“To accomplish something or to solve a problem.”

That didn’t matter. Aoe spun his body to the right and let fly a rightward roundhouse kick.

'''“No matter the strength or speed of my foe. No matter the destiny carried by my foe.”

His right leg drew out a large arc and then swung down.

'''“I shall move ever forward.”

Mekton fell back to dodge.

'''“My hands shall tear down my foe’s every barrier and my feet shall trample their every trap.”

Aoe pursued. Once his right toes reached the floor, he spun his body atop them. He threw a left kick this time.

'''“I wield the defensive power to block any wind. I wield the offensive power to tear through any wall.”

Mekton also dodged the second kick sent overhead. His cheek bent.

'''“My power is a manifestation of my will.”

“That was…Daikatana’s move!”

'''“My Lives carry all this power with them.”

Aoe did not confirm it. Nor did he stop attacking. He balanced on his left heel to send out another right kick.

'''“They carry the power of my hands, legs, head, and even the minute power of the tip of my toe.”

He rapidly swung his leg down in a third rotating kick.

'''“I shall draw on all that power and surround myself in my own willpower.”

He heard Yuo’s voice as he kicked off the floor with his left pivot leg.

'''“I can fight.”

He jumped to increase the height of the third kick. To send it further.

'''“I can fight.”

Mekton realized he couldn’t dodge the extended kick, so he crossed his arms overhead.

'''“So I shall move ever forward.”

He took a defensive stance. Aoe’s right heel slammed down against the crossed arms.

'''“To accomplish something or to solve a problem.”

The impact caused the bones to strain inside Mekton’s arms, but he lowered his hips to endure it.

'''“That is why I sing this marching song of progress.”

Mekton spread his arms wide, launching Aoe’s blocked right leg upwards.

'''“'''Any goal is achievable if you never give up.”

Aoe nodded at Yuo’s song. And his left pivot leg crashed into Mekton’s jaw from below.



'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

“…!”

Mekton’s large body lifted from the ground and bent back.

Aoe had intentionally let the trio of downward kicks be blocked and deflected and used that force to power a roundhouse kick from below. The final kick had only been possible because he used his left leg to support him.

He bent back, made a full flip, and landed with both feet on the ground.

Mekton managed to stop himself after taking a single step back. He had looked up and seen the white blimp behind him for a moment, but his powerful gaze was back on Aoe soon enough.

With his jaw broken, blood dripped from his mouth.

“Gah!”

He used a powerful swing of his unsteady body to retake a fighting stance.

“Ah!”

He opened his mouth.

“Eh!”

He shouted, but Aoe was already moving forward.

<Senpai!>

Yuo shouted, but Aoe focused on his enemy instead.

Mekton’s trembling legs were beginning to grow transparent.

…''I had a feeling.

That was the result of boosting himself while receiving power from 400 NPC Bodies.

He trembled and displayed his destruction through his transparency as he asked a question.

“What will it be!? Your killing power? Or your strongest power?”

Aoe answered while approaching.

“The strongest!”

He thought about his battle with Mekton. He thought about the things that had happened during it.

He recalled that the 400 NPC Bodies had avoided aiming at Yuo even though she was their enemy.

He recalled that Mekton had tried to retrieve the falling program trigon when he could have won the battle.

“There’s only one possible conclusion there!”

…''Was he protecting Yuo to avoid losing her?

As soon as that thought raced through Aoe’s mind, he clenched his right fist which contained an infinity and he released his will.

'''“Then I will use this attacking fist to protect Yuo!”

A shattering glass sound came from his fist.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Up ahead, he saw Mekton’s chest as his target and Mekton’s right fist swinging in from the side.

Aoe swung his fist. He couldn’t have dodged if he tried and he didn’t even consider it.

They both sent out a powerful blow.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

“Kh!”

Aoe’s fist was faster. His right fist carried all of his strength to the center of Mekton’s chest.

It landed.

The impact erupted at Mekton’s back, not his chest. Mekton’s body shook with a sound like a falling boulder.

But that did not stop him from moving.

His right fist was going to catch Aoe on the side of the head. Aoe realized something when he saw the approaching fist.

A moment later, Yuo wrapped her arms around his neck from behind.

“Stop!” she shouted just as Mekton’s fist ran right through Aoe’s head.



'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

For a few seconds, Aoe came to a complete stop and waited.

The wind blew across the water and chilled his skin.

The wind directed his attention out front.

After wrapping her arms around him from behind, Yuo had covered his face with them.

Past her arms, he saw his own right fist pressed against a thick chest covered in black.

Past his fist, he saw Mekton with the white blimp behind him.

He was frozen in his punching stance.

Blood spilled from his mouth as he looked down at them with a faint smile.

“Master Yuo.”

But Yuo may not have been able to hear his voice because her arms did not move.

Aoe looked back to see she had her eyes and mouth squeezed tightly shut.

…''What is she so worked up about?

He smiled bitterly and looked Mekton in the eye. Mekton looked him in the eye too, so Aoe pulled back his right fist and poked at Yuo’s arm that was dangerously close to strangling him.

Then she moved behind him. He sensed her slowly raising her head.

“Eh?” she said, her hair tickling the sides of Aoe’s neck.

She was looking side to side. She stopped while looking to the right, so Aoe sighed and did the same.

He saw a fist there.

It had been passing through his face this entire time. It was Mekton’s enormous right fist.

It was transparent.

Aoe heard Yuo’s voice while he viewed the fist from the inside.

“Its hitbox is gone.”

Sure enough, Mekton’s entire arm had gone transparent at this point.

“His fist wasn’t disturbing the air on its way to me,” said Aoe to no one in particular.

Then he looked to Mekton.

He sighed and asked a question.

“It seemed to me you intentionally took that final attack. Did you?”

Mekton shut his eyes and nodded.

“I thought…it would be best…to let it hit.”

Yuo asked a question about that. She leaned forward with her hands on Aoe’s shoulders.

“Was that because…you knew Senpai would protect me?”

Mekton opened his eyes a crack to view Yuo.

He lowered his gaze and thought for a bit.

“I made up my mind…when this idiot…collected the program…and attacked. I knew then…that he would protect you. And I knew…he wouldn’t choose to die.” Mekton spoke softly. “My job…was to protect you. And you kept me company…and cheered me on. But I knew…I would lose eventually. But…but I hoped I could get him…to protect you for me.”

“And that was your way of thanking her?”

Aoe saw Mekton starting to flash.

“We all…felt the same. We wanted something…that could defeat us like that. We wanted a Master Yuo who would not give up…a new Master Yuo who could defeat us all.

“Do you understand?” he asked Aoe.

As he disappeared, he turned his eyes toward Yuo.

Aoe looked over his shoulder. He saw Yuo on the verge of tears as she faced Mekton.

Mekton narrowed his eyes and smiled.

He opened his smiling mouth and spoke a quiet but distinct pair of words.

“Don’t cry.”

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Mekton disappeared.

Aoe shut his eyes.

Yuo’s hands were on his shoulders. Her hands trembled as they gripped his flesh.

He took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes.

He looked to the sky. He saw the dark clouds and the silhouette of the tower jutting up into that darkness.

He lowered his gaze to find a blimp.

He stared at it.

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom>

Below the blimp was the artificial lake’s shore. A small sandy beach was built there and two people stood on it.

“That’s them,” said Aoe, feeling the tremor vanish from Yuo’s hands.

Her hands squeezed firmly in lieu of a nod.

Not feeling a need for any more words, he started walking across the water.

Slowly at first, but soon…

“Let’s go, Yuo.”

He ran. His feet kicked spray into the air on the way to the final battlefield.

The enemy he had sought awaited him there.

'''<Aoe’s Sight Mode has updated>