Editing City Series:Volume3b Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 1===

The azure sky was covered in Lives the color of dark clouds with a low, thick Tempo.

Those Lives of powerful intimidation were so thick they almost erased the sky itself.

The dark clouds slowly flew and wriggled around the sky like a mass of great serpents. And their intimidating gaze was pointed down toward the city of Hong Kong.

The serpents viewed only one thing: Gunmal as he stood in the center of a two lane road.

“Sister complexes are awful things. Did he find out I kissed her? …He’s definitely mad, that’s for sure.”

While complaining to himself, he ran toward the previous explosion.

As he hurried there, he intended to start by saving Akira.

“Not that I expect things to go that smoothly. I can run this easily after getting that first attack in, but…”

His voice trailed off and a harsh strength filled his expression instead.

“But it looks like he caught up just before I got there.”

He faced forward.

A mere five meters ahead, the intimidation in the air gathered together and descended.

The wind blew.

“!”

Gunmal put up his defenses as the sky’s dark cloud Lives gathered in front of him. They gathered in the powerful rotation at the bottom of the vortex and they took a certain form.

It was fast.

All of the intimidation covering the sky instantly stabbed toward him.

The Lives gave a low roar.

A moment later, someone could be heard quietly landing.

“…”

Double Lee now stood in front of Gunmal.

He stared at Gunmal with all of the previous intimidation filling his gaze.

But Gunmal was not frightened or pushed back by that gaze.

“That was a pretty low-key appearance for the flashy lead up.”

“To the average person, all I did was descend from the sky. But my will and gaze may have looked more impressive to someone who can see Lives.”

“Then was all that for little old me?”

His tone said “you’re gonna make me cry”, but he suddenly swung Nein König in his left hand.

“Ah.”

He Busted the air with that steel-colored Live.

The air exploded with a heavy metallic sound.

And it did not stop at a single explosion. Just as he had done in front of the General, a chain of explosions covered a wide range. He Busted the Lives of the air, transformed it into thousands of pure white ion spheres, and swung Nein König over a wide path.

And he charged in amongst it all.

He had stopped breathing and he thrust Nein König forward while running in the same direction.

Nein König’s tip created a path by piercing through an explosion that was becoming a mass of light. That explosion had been created by Busting the air, so he Busted it again to disperse it.

Gunmal crouched low as he ran through the tunnel dug by Nein König.

The end of his hair, the bottom of his coat, and his shoes were torn into by the exploding air.

But he did not care.

A few seconds later, Nein König’s tip contacted normal un-Busted air.

He immediately broke free of the forest of exploding light.

He took a quick breath and continued running.

Behind him, the explosions grew accustomed to the surrounding air and showed signs of diffusing.

“He’d have to be a real monster to escape that unharmed.”

Gunmal did not even bother turning around, but…

“I can’t believe this.”

He tilted his head as he ran.

“Looks like he really is a monster.”

He smiled bitterly and looked back to see a large bird.

The bird of prey had a wing span of at least ten meters and it was filled with pure white light.

It was a beast created from Tuning.

And Gunmal realized what Live its pure white body had been created from.

[[Image:City_v03b_159.jpg|thumb]]

“My own Busting!?”

He took a large leap forward.

The great bird’s beak tore into the spot he had just vacated and he heard the asphalt being torn apart.

While listening to the events behind him, he flipped Nein König back over his shoulder and continued running.

“This is no laughing matter. …Um, I think I used an Octave of just over two million for that attack, so to erase it again, I’ll need… Hey, give me time to think!”

Another attack arrived.

Gunmal jumped right to escape. A beak the size of his body descended within arm’s reach to the left.

And it mercilessly stabbed into the road.

A great roar sounded and Gunmal took action.

He was resting Nein König over his left shoulder, so he slammed it horizontally toward the bird.

He did not emit a Live.

Nein König struck the base of the beak and produced a solid sound.

“!”

Gunmal Busted that sound.

He directly Busted the action of “striking”.

Nein König amplified the “striking” Live inside itself and instantly released a Live powerful enough to swallow up the great bird.

The great bird was enveloped by the Live reverberating from Nein König.

It reverberated with the sound of being struck.

With a solid sound, the great bird voicelessly came apart.

It exploded.

Light and a bursting sound spread and multiplied.

Gunmal reversed Nein König’s swing and negated the explosion of light.

Then, he sighed. He faced forward to find the road open and becoming an arcade. Some dull gray smoke hung in the air. His destination was close by.

He began running once more.

“It’s pretty impressive you can keep up with my Busting using an Over Up.”

“Staying true to the fundamentals is my style.”

Double Lee’s voice rang out and Gunmal sent his gaze around the area as he ran.

He looked to the sky, the destroyed buildings, the road, behind him, and straight ahead once more.

After looking at all that, he smiled bitterly.

“How about you quit hiding and show yourself? You cheapskate.”

“I cannot afford to be hit by an attack like that last one.”

“Did it get you?”

“A bit.”

“Hell yeah. I’ve still got a chance.”

“Yes, but your brother did not even manage to scratch me.”

“That’s because he was gay. He would always hesitate when it was a good-looking guy.”

“…”

“I’m just kidding.”

Gunmal received a response after a beat.

“I was beginning to wonder if you could not see Genius.”

“Oh, I saw that. I saw the other person’s Live inside her,” he said lightly. “And that means I’m old enough to be called uncle. This is truly a sad day.”

“Only if you survive this.”

“Oh, how scary. You certainly are a confident genius.”

“A genius, hm? I suppose you were called that as well.”

“It’s not a bad thing to have people calling you, right?”

Gunmal slowed his pace a little.

He passed between two buildings and entered a larger street.

It was destroyed as well.

There were three lanes on either side and it was piled with wreckage from collapsed buildings. The wreckage formed a several dozen meter concrete mountain with the wide base of a stratovolcano.

Gunmal came to a stop and looked to the peak of the mountain before his eyes.

Something that stood out against the color of the concrete had fallen there.

The color was a nearly-gold white.

They were wings.

They were Akira’s wings.

She lay at the peak of the mountain.

Gunmal smiled bitterly.

“I see. That’s some nice bait. …Do you love me that much?”

“You do often hear people say they love someone enough to kill them.”

“I can’t believe this… I don’t protect guys, you know?”

“Neither do I.”

“Then is it because you hate me?”

“Yes.”

“And is that because I laid a hand on Akira, you great genius who stays true to the fundamentals?”

Double Lee responded with a bitter smile of his own.

“That sarcasm… You understand everything, don’t you?”

“Didn’t Genius tell you? My brother’s Busting was always true to the fundamentals. To me, it seemed unbelievably stiff.”

“Did your brother look up to you?”

Gunmal laughed quietly at that question.

“Personally, I think staying true to the fundamentals is one form of style.”

With that, he walked forward. He slowly began to climb the mountain of rubble to reach Akira.

Meanwhile, he raised Nein König in his left hand.

“How about we bring this farce to an end? I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I can’t be dying anytime soon.”

His casual tone was belied by the intense attack he launched as he swung the down the Device.