Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume19 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 1===

It was February and the carnival gave them a leg up. The Faith Organization home country was usually strictly guarded, but at this time of year they had no choice but to throw open their gates and invite in a great crowd of tourists.

This was much appreciated by those plotting to sneak in and cause trouble.

“Okay, let’s do one final check using this board game, Putana.”

“Yes, teacher.”

A cramped room was surrounded on all sides by windowless metal walls. The light hanging from the low ceiling illuminated a brown girl with her long black hair in a ponytail. She wore a green special suit designed to resemble a nurse outfit.

Her name was Putana Highball.

She had been the Pilot Elite for the Faith Organization’s Second Generation Collective Farming and she had converted her scopophobia into a weapon. She was a true monster that sense any “eyes” on her to the point that she could accurately detect a military satellite’s attention from 36 thousand kilometers away.

She had since joined the Legitimacy Kingdom.

The 37th’s potatoes could not have asked for a better local guide.

Quenser, Heivia, Myonri, and Putana sat around a table where a few game pieces sat atop a paper map.

“The former Legitimacy Kingdom thugs known as the Electric Drills have infiltrated their old home country of Rome to have revenge. That holy land contains all the higher ups who kicked them out, so I’m sure they want to go absolutely nuts. We must stop whatever war it is they’re trying to start, so we need to get into Rome too. Without permission, of course. To be blunt, we know we can’t expect the Faith Organization to protect itself after they let those thugs in.”

“U-um.” Jack-of-all-trades Myonri nervously raised her hand. “So these…Electric Drills? We know they have entered Rome, but what are they trying to do there? Not even the best fake IDs would let them sneak a 50m Object into their home country.”

Quenser shrugged.

If they had all the answers, they could have stopped that shady group before they even got to Rome. The Legitimacy Kingdom was playing catch up because they had already lost on the intelligence front.

So they needed to make up for that and get ahead of their enemy.

Heivia tossed a few photos onto the map.

“Episcia Sweetlady. Sex: Male. Age: 29. The moron was captured on a livestream of the parade, so he’s the only Electric Drill we know is in Rome. We have to capture him and get him to talk before they do whatever it is they’re planning. That’s Step 1 for us.”

The delinquent noble was not done there.

In fact, he was only getting started.

“But that isn’t the end of it. The Electric Drills – or really, Bad Garage who leads all those online terrorists – wants to prove their environmental destruction by Objects theory. They want a disaster so bad not even the joint efforts of the four world powers can cover it up.”

“So whatever those thugs are up to in Rome, an Object will be involved at some point. We don’t know how yet, but it will happen.”

“You must be joking, teacher. Rome is a home country with more than 2 million permanent residents.”

“Yeah, and that number goes past 10 million when you include the visitors for February’s carnival. We can’t let an Object rampage through such a densely populated area, so we can’t just chase after the Electric Drills. We need to get ahead of them and stop them. For good. Putana, can you guide us through Rome? Even if the place is flooded with tourists right now, we want to keep a low profile by avoiding any Faith Organization taboos.”

“Of course.”

“That’s all I needed to hear. Let’s get started.”

With that, they approached the double doors at the back of the room and threw them open.

The sunlight that rushed in was so bright it seemed to burn their retinas.

They were greeted by the deep tones of several church bells ringing at once.

They stepped out into a historical city of white stone walls and brick roads. Even the traffic light poles and wireless LAN antennae had been colored to look ancient. The densely-populated area was like a massive open-air museum where every house and store you found was registered as a world heritage site.

This was the Faith Organization’s Tiber District.

This was their home country of Rome.

Quenser and the others had changed into down jackets and comfortable pants and they carried traveling backpacks because they weren’t just in enemy territory – they were in the enemy’s home country. The “room” they had just left was the long metal container on the back of a large truck parked on the curb.

Heivia, who was carrying a thin knapsack sold as a reusable shopping bag over his shoulder, did a double take at the young man who walked past him.

“God damn, that’s Rome for you. The guy’s listening to a hymn on his phone. Is there a monthly subscription to listen to as many of them as you want?”

“They live in the modern world too. More technology doesn’t mean you have to get rid of your faith. Didn’t you know phone map apps have a service where they route you through as many church pilgrimage spots as your schedule permits? There is also an AR app that lets you hold up your phone and watch the construction of Rome in fast-forward. Also, try to talk like a Faith Organization person. Avoiding ‘god damn’ would be a good start.”

“Hey, war entertainment is supposed to be our thing in the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

“Who various legends and myths belong to is a can of worms you do not want to open. Do you have any idea how many tons of relics there are out there claiming to be part of the Buddha’s remains? Or how many lances out there are purported to be the original Lance of Longinus? Roman mythology adopted so much from the Greek gods that no one remembers what it was like originally. One look at the big picture tells you it can’t all be true, but every temple, church, and shrine out there insists that they have the truth.”

The potatoes knocked on the door to the driver’s compartment to greet Millia Newburg of the intelligence division before they calmly joined the crowd of tourists. From here on, they would be following the guidance of Putana Highball who knew the Faith Organization’s local rules by heart.

“Hey, Quenser,” said Heivia. “I could have sworn we were with the Legitimacy Kingdom. I know we’re here on that busty commander’s orders, but why the hell do we need to stop this? If the Faith Organization is going to more or less destroy itself, why not sit back and enjoy the show?”

“How is a noble so ignorant of politics and war? If an enemy home country suddenly falls, the balance between the world powers goes out the window. And the distinction between safe country and battlefield country goes with it. Then we could end up with a chaotic all-you-can-eat buffet of a world war. The Legitimacy Kingdom doesn’t want that. Have you checked how close Rome is to Paris on the globe lately? We’re right next to each other. We don’t want a ton of refugees crossing the Alps to reach us and we definitely don’t want to be the Faith Organization’s easiest target when they start lashing out for revenge. So we have to stop this to preserve the peace.”

With so many people, the tourism business was booming. The street sides were lined with stalls selling skewers of meat or red wine. This was the February carnival, so eating, drinking, dancing, and wearing costumes was the standard set. A marching band and floats covered in decorative lights formed a parade down a blocked-off road. The carnival here didn’t feature the samba and bikinis, but it was no less showy.

“Come on, Necleka, Eleanor. The concert hall is this way, so let’s go get a photo there!”

Heivia whispered while stepping out of the way of a fried shrimp in glasses leading a pair of twin girls.

“Oh, god. It’s her. No one look to two o’clock. It’s Sarasa Gleamshifter. Those Valkyries are the divine punishment group of the Faith Organization police, so they really stand out in the crowd.”

A woman with short blonde hair and cold eyes wore a skintight black combat suit. The parts worn over it likely provided some kind of muscular support, but they looked more like sexy underwear. This was the Valkyries’ home, so they had no need to hide their gear. She was armed with a short-range sniper rifle designed for use on urban criminals. (Instead of shooting an enemy soldier through the head at ultra-long range, it was designed to accurately shoot a criminal and not their hostage at much closer range.) Her presence may have been meant to show security was tight and they would not hesitate to shoot anyone who took the festivities too far.

Sarasa had not made a mistake. Heivia had only really noticed her so soon because he already knew her. Otherwise, he might not have noticed even if she was right behind them.

But that meant they needed to be careful too.

There was always a chance she would notice their familiar faces in the same way.

Putana led them through the crowd, taking a gentle turn to avoid being seen by Sarasa.

They walked through the ancient city at a casual pace while making sure not to bump into any of the passersby. No one questioned their presence here…not even the man who checked to see if he was being followed so frequently it only drew attention to him.

Putana stared at the man’s back and whispered without moving her lips.

“Episcia Sweetlady sighted. Don’t worry. His eyes are passing right over us. We have entered his field of vision several times, but he still hasn’t noticed us.”

“Even a civilian could tell this guy’s bad at his job, so you focus more on seeing if any cameras or drones have their ‘eyes’ on us. I’m more worried about the random tourists than the security at fixed locations and on fixed patrol routes, so let’s make our move when the tourists thin out.”

After gently toppling a pile of trash to keep ordinary people from following, spreading out some leftover food to distract any animals, and turning the corner into a dark, narrow street, the brown girl gave the signal. Their quarry didn’t even notice the sound of the trash.

“We’re good. No one is watching. This is a blind spot.”

“No Valkyries?”

“None.”

“You’re up, Millia.”

With a screech of tires, a large truck cut across the street to block the man’s way and slammed on its brakes. Episcia must have realized something was up because he panicked and tried to turn tail and run, but when he turned around, he found Heivia and Putana had snuck up to him. Those two sent merciless blows into his nose and gut, sending him crumpling to the ground without so much as a scream.

They covered his mouth with duct tape, copied the data from his trackable phone, and threw it out.

“All done,” said Heivia. “Give me a hand, Quenser. We need to load this moron into the back of the truck.”