Editing City Series:Volume3b Opening (section)

===Part 1===

Hong Kong’s destruction began.

Four giant dragons flew through the night sky and Nein Engels were gathered around them.

As if called by the dragons’ roars, the earth was Tuned and flew up toward heaven.

The roads, houses, buildings, greenery, rivers, and everything else became light and sound before seeking the sky.

It truly was a show of destruction.

And Akira ran along the stage of that show.

She always chose the path leading to the weakest of the destructive Lives as she travelled west along Ma Tau Wai Road to return the way she had come and escape Hung Hom.

She was running with all her strength.

She did not turn around and she took no breaks.

Occasionally, her foot would catch on the uncertain ground and she would almost trip.

She would move her wings to balance herself, but…

“Ow…”

She would grimace at the pain in her broken wing and the wound in her side.

…''I could heal that if I had my Device.

But she did not. Her trusty Device was broken and unusable.

She had lost her Device and injured her wing and body.

That was what she had accomplished in the fight against her brother.

“…”

She said nothing, looked down at her feet, and ran.

But the ground suddenly broke apart below her.

“!?”

She felt her foot break through and a fissure opened much like a gaping maw.

It was deep.

…''Oh, no!

She flapped her wings on reflex.

Intense pain shot through her broken right wing and a numbing pain ran along her spine.

…''Ah!

Not even she knew whether her swallowed scream was in response to the pain or the fear below her feet.

She lost her balance at the unstable movement of her wings and she fell onto her right shoulder.

She felt a dull pain and rolled two or three times along the broken asphalt.

She did not fall into the fissure, but the roll caused her right wing to ache again. That pain would not even let her pass out.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow…”

She sat up and shook her head.

Miraculously, her Yard cap remained on her head, so she adjusted its position as she stood up…until her knees began to give out underneath her.

“Ah.”

She placed her hands on her sinking knees and somehow managed to remain standing.

She took a breath, listened to the surrounding Lives again, and looked at her own body.

She had several injuries on her skin and her uniform and wings were stained all over with dust and blood.

“…”

She silently rubbed her eyes as if they were dirty too.

“I need to focus on escaping.”

She nodded and immediately heard an odd Live.

It was a distinctive Live.

It rang in her gut, had a low Tempo with a wave-like motion, and was colored a metallic gray.

It only lasted an instant, but it raced around her like a ripple.

…''?

She looked up and saw the four Earth Burns dancing in the heavens while consuming Hong Kong. The Lives of destruction rang loud in the distance, but they were very different and much more harmonized than the Live she had just heard.

It had been such a strange Live that she completely forgot about the pain in her wing and frowned.

…''What was that?

Just as she asked herself that, her upturned eyes saw something in the heavens.

The fire element Earth Burn that had risen from Hung Hom had its long red body split in two.

“!?”

The reason arrived after a slight delay.

It was that previous Live.

However, it was somehow different.

It was larger, it was more powerful, and its omnidirectional rippling motion had been focused in a single direction.

It was a monosyllabic shout.

She heard it as a continuous “ah”. She felt the low Tempo in her body and saw the heavy metallic Word Color.

It had to be the after-effect of the shout that had cut the dragon in two.

However…

“The after-effect is this loud? Its Octave is easily over ten million.”

The Lives of destruction vanished from her surroundings and the disintegration of the earth slowed.

“Is it over? …No, that isn’t it.”

As proof, she saw a small mountain of land and a few buildings rise into the air far to the south.

The destruction was simply shifting from the surface and into the crust.

It was only getting started.

…''Then why?

It was due to the splitting of the red dragon. The Lives the dragon had destroyed had been returned to their original forms, which counteracted its continuing destruction and slowed its pace.

The split crimson dragon began a descent in order to restore the lost portion of its body.

…''Who cut that dragon?

She could make a guess and she was confident that guess was correct.

“ ‘If the Earth Burn is activated, call me’, hm?”

She finally gave a slight smile.

She also slapped her knees and faced forward to begin running again.

“?”

She noticed a small figure on the broken roadway.

It was a boy in pajamas who was on the borderline between a small child and just a child.

Akira ran over to him as he slowly walked around and looked up in the sky.

She caught up in only a few seconds.

“Hey! You have to run!”

His small body gave a start and he turned toward her.

At the same time, she heard a high-pitched cry.

It was the mewing of a cat.

“Hm?”

She looked down and found the short-haired boy was holding a white cat. It seemed to be a pet because it had a red string and a bell around its neck.

She looked at the green-eyed cat and the boy and then sighed in relief.

She placed a hand on the boy’s back.

“You have to run. C’mon, you’ve stopped.”

“…”

The boy silently faced forward and began to walk.

“Run!”

She gave his back a gentle shove and he sped up.

She also began to jog while looking around to protect the boy. Taking solid steps made her right wing throb, but she could hardly complain given the situation.

She looked at the boy’s Live and lamented in her heart that she did not have her Device.

That was just how disturbed his Live was. Both in body and mind.

…''Sorry.

She apologized only in her heart and the cat mewed once.

At the same time, the boy spoke.

“…My house.”

That was all.

Ignoring the pain in her wing, Akira looked down at him and the serious expression that looked far too mature for his age.

…''Where have I seen that expression before?

She quickly found her answer.

When watching over J-Gun’s final moments, she had read the Message of his memories from his Live.

The crying boy facing J-Gun in a destroyed city had made that same expression.

And thinking back on it…

…''That boy must have been Gunmal.

She would never have imagined that kind of past based on how he acted now, but she accepted it all the same.

“…”

She remained silent for a while.

After a few breaths, she nodded toward the boy running with her and repeated herself.

“You have to run.”

He nodded a few times as if accepting her words.

He then looked up at her a bit and asked a question.

“Are you from the Yard?”

“Yes, I’m part of the General’s Yard.”

“Where’s the Great General?”

“He’s waiting for everyone in the center of the city where it’s safe.”

“I see.” The boy pouted his lips. “Then I wish I could have gotten on that motorcycle at the beginning.”

“Motorcycle?”

“A delinquent was riding it with a woman. I was in my broken house and they didn’t make it in time.”

“What an awful delinquent,” she said with a bitter smile.

…''That would be Kouga and Rin. I guess I’m the only one that hasn’t escaped.

Something appeared just as she frowned.

“!”

A great form flew by only ten meters overhead.

“…What!?”

“The red dragon!”

The boy was correct.

The red dragon flew by over their heads again.

The roar of its passage was much louder and more powerful than an airplane.

It was thirty meters across and, despite being sliced apart earlier, at least five hundred meters long.

It was simply on too great a scale.

…''Wow.

As she thought that, the ground seemed to loosen below her feet.

“Run!” she shouted while following her own advice.

On the second step, her feet seemed to rise.

A crack ran by in front of her and the ground floated up beneath her and the boy.

The crust was being Tuned instead of just the surface.

The destruction had begun at a more fundamental spot.

Akira held the boy in her arms and leaped.

She glanced backwards just once while in midair and saw something she wished she had not.

Far, far down Ma Tau Wai Road, about five hundred meters behind her, the red dragon’s head had dropped to the surface.

…''It’s so big.

From this distance, she judged its head to be at least thirty meters across and over forty meters tall if the horn was included.

And bestial eyes glowed yellow in that massive face.

…''It’s looking this way?

She felt like she could sense its gaze on her and her wings trembled lightly.

“…”

The earth swelled up behind her, blocking the red dragon from view.

She and the boy landed and hit the ground running.

She was now certain she felt the dragon’s gaze on her.

Despite the wall of earth behind her, the Live of its gaze reached her through it.

There was no doubting it.

Its gaze sent a disturbing Live her way. Its Word Color was an oddly warm purplish-red, its Tempo was much like a pulse, and it contained an unpleasantly sticky Message.

It was much like the curious looks she often received around town just for being a Nein Engel.

The red dragon was interested in her.

More than wondering why, she sensed the panic in the boy.

…''Oh, no.

She pushed on his back and spoke.

“Listen. Run as fast as you can without looking back.”

“Eh?”

He started to turn toward her, but she placed her Yard cap on his head.

“Don’t look. If you hear something or start to see something, cover your eyes with the brim of my cap.”

“Why?”

“It’s like a magic charm. If you do that, you won’t be scared.”

“Eh?”

That monosyllabic question was interrupted by the crust being destroyed underfoot once more.

The ground was rising like a pillar.

“C’mon, run!”

Akira shouted and jumped backwards.

The cat in the boy’s arms gave a quick mew as if to say goodbye.

Several pillars of earth rose between her and the boy, creating a wall to separate them.

The street swelled up like a hill and Akira descended the opposite side.

Having turned back, she saw the red dragon.

The crimson dragon was stretched along the road and its long tail still flowed through the sky.

She descended the rising hill and stood on some of the limited flat ground still remaining.

She was surrounded by tilted ground, pillars of earth, and the foundations and walls of the houses and buildings still attached.

“Instead of simply breaking it all down, it’s destroyed and devoured. My brother’s dragon really is cruel.”

She then realized why the red dragon was focused on her.

“My brother.”

When an object was Tuned into another form, it would give shape to the Tuner’s Message.

And the Message was the Tuner’s thoughts, including the elements of emotion.

“And that includes hostility.”

After that monotone comment, she bit her lower lip.

At the same time, the ground shook.

She looked forward and saw the red dragon moving.

It was moving forward, toward her.