Editing City Series:Volume1 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 1===

'''12/20/1935

It was night and the moon was hidden by the clouds.

The wind was strong and it was more than just a winter wind. This wind was filled with the chill of high altitude.

This was the deck of the Bladlikburg, an aerial aircraft carrier of the German air force.

The metal deck was large enough for a track meet and several people stood on the front. The men all wore military uniforms and they formed a half circle.

A tall soldier stood in the center of their formation.

He appeared to be the commander and he was wrapped in a tougher and icier atmosphere than the surrounding soldiers.

He stared straight forward to the edge of the deck inside the half-circle formation. Their prey stood there.

That prey was a young man in a lab coat. His pure white clothing seemed to glow in the darkness.

His long black hair was tied back and the bottom of his coat danced in the wind.

The commander spoke to him.

“Are you sure you will not hand over your information on the dp-XXX, Walter?”

The voice rang loudly even in the sky and the young man named Walter brought a hand to his head and showed off a bitter smile.

“I’m really not sure what to do here.” His far too cheerful voice also rang loudly. “You promised us we could hold an experimental space launch if we built a powerful engine, didn’t you? So how did things get like this exactly?”

“That engine is too dangerous. That is all.”

Walter’s bitter smile transformed into a laugh.

“Ha ha ha. Now you’re just being silly, Oscar. Just say the military wants the tech for themselves. It’s not nice to lie.”

“You are the one being silly. You do not honestly think you can reach space with that engine, do you?”

“With just one, probably not. You’d need to put in at least three of them.”

Oscar looked the other man in the eye when he heard that.

“I saw the experiment. When two of those engines are used together, they interfere with each other and refuse to function!”

“That’s because of all the fine-tuning we did to make sure the moonlight wouldn’t mess with them. But even one of them produces as much energy as five of the current engines. That’s why the military wants them, isn’t it?”

In the thirties, the military…no, the entire world used spirit engines that used spirit stones.

Spirit stones were a stone made from crystallized ether.

Ether was the element that made up all things, including space itself. Long ago, people had believed in the four classical elements, but research in the late eighteenth century had revealed that there was only a single basic element.

Spirit engines used spirit stones to draw out energy.

Emblems that determined the arrangement of ether were carved into the engines. When ether flowed from the spirit stones, it would travel through the grooves which would determine its form. Ether that touched a fire emblem would become fire.

But even though spirit engines could create fire, water, thunder, and wind, they also had a massive flaw.

Spirit stones would resonate with the light of the moon and their output would be sent out of control. Enough machines had lost control during nights with strong moonlight that night activities had been banned during the previous great war.

It was not known why they were so affected by moonlight. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, scholars had thrown in the towel and simply declared it a “law of nature”.

Ever since, spirit engines were only used outside of the moonlight because no one had discovered a method of avoiding that mysterious law.

The military had simply thought Walter’s group was creating a new design for that same type of engine.

Oscar wrinkled his brow before speaking.

“And who do you think will allow you to foolishly try to reach space?”

“Don’t be stupid. You don’t need anyone’s permission to transcend the sky.”

“Why are you so intent on defying us?”

Walter uncrossed his arms and exaggeratedly placed a hand on his forehead.

“Why, you ask?”

“…”

“Well, you see…”

“…”

“My burning spirit of justice won’t allow me to hand it over to the military. Ha ha ha.”

The soldier standing next to Oscar looked up at his commander.

“Can I fill him with lead?”

“No, that is just the sort of man he is. Be patient.”

Oscar took a step forward.

“You are young and you are rushing things, Walter. If you leave the dp-XXX with the military, you will receive even more funding and all the technology you need to reach space. Why not wait until then?”

“You really are dumb. If I have to hand it over to the military, I might as well patent it and sell it to America. I’d make enough money to live the rest of my life in luxury.”

“America!?” shouted Oscar. “We need that engine for our nation!”

Walter stared right back at the man.

“Our nation, huh?”

He was no longer smiling.

He stuck his hands in his lab coat’s pockets, raised his shoulders a little, and looked up into Oscar’s eyes.

“You really do say some ridiculous things.”