Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume15 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 14===

“Frank. Prepare for battle.”

In a second floor hallway of Columbia University’s main building, a black-uniformed blonde girl gave that command. Wraith Martini Vermouthspray’s eyes were fixed on the yard visible out the window.

“Heh heh. Eh heh heh. Eh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. I’m inside a world-renowned Ivy League school in clothing that could be torn with the slightest tug. How☆thrilling!! 008, 774, 868, 229! Tag it, tag it, tag it some more!! The cold, rejecting atmosphere of the school hallway is so good. Ah ha, ah ha ha. I’m going crazy. Completely crazy. The world is such an amazing place…!!”

“Melly, can I just shoot you?”

“Uwebh, cough, cough!! 808. Sorry, I’ll take this seriously.”

She must have been focused on the footage from the ubiquitous floral security cameras because the brown girl with her butt inside a large swim ring made from the same material as a special operations rubber boat stared at her game system and began folding up her arms and legs that she had spread out. The approach of outsiders may have brought out her shy side.

“438. To get back on topic, Wraith, I’ve detected the attack, but I have a few questions. You should be cautious.”

“Not what I expected to hear from New York’s defense commander.”

Did Wraith sound so threatening because she suspected she herself was being affected by the Ragnarok Script? Looking at oneself was not easy. Melly, meanwhile, had folded up her limbs like a chrysalis or fetus to enter her serious mode (even if that was only skin deep).

She must have been worried about it overheating because she waved the thin game system like a fan.

“Even with everything I’ve seen here, it still doesn’t add up. I doubt the isolated Legitimacy Kingdom remnant could do all this on their own. 319. We should assume some of our own people are supporting them.”

“So they have equipment and our internal information, huh?”

“050. Also, I can’t figure out why they would target Columbia University. There have to have been better candidates if they wanted to damage the Manhattan 000 as the world’s largest Object. This place is being used as a shelter for civilians because there was nothing of value here. Are they directly targeting me? Or do you have another idea, Wraith?”

“Nope.” Wraith waved her hand dismissively and breathed an exasperated sigh. “But I am aware they would want to kill me if they had a chance. A dangerous and earnest enemy has given up on safely remaining hidden and has made it this far while so many unmanned weapons pursue them. Since they’re actively putting their lives at risk, this has to be more than a whim or just to show off. I doubt a peaceful conversation would get through to them.”

“I see. 591.”

With her limbs folded up and the game system held between her soft-looking brown thighs, Melly lightly swung one of the remote-style controllers. A Bullmite responded to the magic wand by walking up alongside Wraith. Removing the composite armor around its belly revealed a full supply of weapons and ammunition for human use.

Wraith frowned.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Wraith, you will put together whatever you need all on your own. This is a school with plenty of workshops, so it should be much better suited to research projects than a home garage. 171. I’ll supply the weapons, so it would be great if you could settle this with a sensible amount of equipment. And I mean that from a risk simulation standpoint as well. Okay?”

“That would help a lot, but if something happens, say I stole the weapons.”

“Sorry, but I’m not that shameless, Wraith. 903.”

The black-uniformed girl snapped her fingers and the young man stepped forward and began checking through the mountain of weapons and ammo like a guard dog given permission to eat.

“Melly, what will you do?”

“Are you asking me to deal with a gun’s recoil after what happened to my spine? 749. As usual, I will leave the annoying fighting to the unmanned weapons.”

“I doubt that will work,” declared Wraith while grabbing a small self-defense handgun. “Not against this enemy.”