Editing City Series:Volume3b Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 2===

When Akira awoke, she was surrounded by darkness.

…''Is it nighttime?

She quickly realized it was not.

The faint light of a cloudy day slipped in through the gap at the center of the thick curtains.

That light fell on her face as she lay below a single sheet. The bed was located in the corner of a wood-floored room.

She noticed her clothes neatly folded by the pillow.

…''Where am I?

Her sense of smell answered her question. A slight scent of lubricating oil filled the room.

That was the General’s scent.

…''Is this his house? He never tells anyone about his family, so did he really bring me here?

She had only just woken, so that question rolled around her blank mind while she heard distant cicada cries.

…''Am I dreaming? His house would be in the middle of the city, so why would I hear cicadas?

That was when it hit her.

…''There is no city anymore.

Hong Kong was no longer filled with rising smoke, sounds of movement, or human figures.

After confirming that fact, her mind gradually grew more alert.

And she realized something else too.

…''I can’t hear any Lives.

“!”

She could not hear the city’s Lives that she always heard when she woke up.

She could only hear the cicada cries.

A large tremor ran through her body.

She started sweating.

She felt blood rushing to her head and her mind grew entirely clear.

She tried to get up from the bed.

“Ah.”

She slid right back down.

She had been lying on her right side, so her right arm was numb.

She grabbed her numb arm with her left hand, crossed her arms, and stopped moving.

…''How long was I asleep? My body won’t loosen up.

She silently asked her body, but she heard no Lives in response.

She only sensed something vague and elusive like with Gunmal.

But this time, it was with herself.

Just like a normal person who could neither Tune nor Bust, she could only hear the sounds reverberating in her ears and body and she could only see what reflected in her eyes.

That was not nearly enough.

She could not see the sounds dancing in the air and she could not hear the light or the shadow.

Her anxious pulse pounded loud in her ears and the shadows enveloping the room felt far too powerful.

The daily calendar on the wall said it was the twenty-ninth.

From somewhere else in the house, she heard a pendulum clock ringing at the top of the hour.

The bell rang four times, so it had to be 4:00 PM.

Hong Kong would be utterly destroyed the night after this.

“…”

Without saying a word, she sank into the bed. She used her will more than her strength to hold herself with her unmoving arms.

And she sensed something in those tense arms.

She held something hard in her right hand and her arms were wrapped around it.

She looked down.

It took a beat before her eyes focused.

But then she saw it.

She held something like a metal panel in her arms.

The metal panel had been molded into something like a musical instrument.

It was a Device.

She recognized it.

“Nein König.”

She tried to speak the name of the man associated with that Device.

“…”

But she could not.

The broken Device had no hilt and it showed no reaction to her emotions.

…''Not that it would react to the Live of a Tuner who’s losing her powers.

She gathered strength in her brow and tore her gaze from Nein König.

Her eyes then turned to a certain point in the shadowy room: the wall.

A wooden vase hung from the white earthen wall.

A jinyinhua vine grew there with several yellow trumpet-shaped flowers.

Jinyinhua was a vine plant, so it needed to wrap around something to grow.

It was wrapped around a long, angular, and golden feather.

She recognized the color.

…''Is that my feather?

But then…

“Have you woken up?”

The General’s voice reached her from beyond the room’s sliding door.

She looked that way but did not move her body.

She felt a little wary and remained silent. She pretended to still be asleep.

“…”

But despite her silence, she heard a sound from beyond the door.

She could imagine what it was, but first…

“My wife escaped outside this morning. But…here’s some simple boiled water and rice porridge.”

His voice was muffled by the door, but it still reached Akira.

She shrunk down in shock and closed her eyes.

…''I’m being a nuisance again…

The General did not answer her thought.

After a while, she heard his slow, quiet footsteps walking down the wood-floored hall.

She had not heard those footsteps when he had approached.

“I can’t believe this…”

She gathered her will and embraced Nein König again.

She briefly recalled an unpleasant Live: the ensemble of countless screams as the Earth Burn had flown through the sky.

“…”

She tried to ignore it by closing her heart and sinking deeper into the bed.

She wanted to fall asleep so she could accept the facts that had stabbed into her over the past few minutes.