Editing City Series:Volume4a Chapter 11 (section)

===Part 2===

'''4:51 PM

Ixolde’s underground control room was preparing for Ixolde’s activation in two hours’ time.

The elites of Osaka’s Science Club Alliance were speaking only the necessary words and moving between the electronic equipment lined up in the control room. Their mechanical actions created the illusion that they were nothing more than a portion of the overall machine known as Ixolde.

It was a powerful illusion.

Two people in the control room’s entrance viewed it from close up.

One, an eyepatched boy, faced forward as he spoke.

“Compared to the emptiness of the celebration outside, this room is filled with quiet energy.”

The tall boy standing next to him nodded.

“I really don’t fit in with the Student Council and those VIPs. I was right to leave partway through.”

“You’ve never fit in anywhere.”

They both laughed bitterly at that and Souichirou said more with that atmosphere intact.

“It seems Nagoya…didn’t work out.”

“That Fourth Alarm, right? I’d placed some guards around the Hilton earlier just in case, so we have confirmed Nakamura Hisahide, Ikemaru Takahiro, and Aoi Hijiri are there. But there’s something odd about this.”

“?”

“One of the guests there is a girl named Takada…Kiyogi? Not sure how to read her name. And…word of this just reached me.”

Saki pulled out his attaché case and pulled the memo pad from inside it.

He opened it and read through it in a businesslike manner.

“According to the scout unit, the Nagoya Chancellor and the Tokyoites entered the Hilton together at 16:23, but they had a little something extra.”

“Extra?”

Saki scratched his head at Souichirou’s question.

“Hizaka Shoui. He was apparently unconscious and being carried, so I bet he was caught in the middle of something. What should we do? We could always break in on the pretext of saving Hizaka.”

“I leave that decision in your hands. For today, I’m only thinking about my personal actions.”

Souichirou continued facing the working students and never once turned toward Saki.

“But…the Shinkage Style is here, is it?”

“What? I’d heard the Modified Purple Electricity Style passed down by your family includes the Kage Style, so is there a connection there?”

“Yes. …This means a bond from before my birth has returned to Osaka. I will tell you the details eventually.”

He still did not face Saki.

“Well, even if the Shinkage Style is here, at least there won’t be an ogre this time,” said Saki.

Souichirou moved slightly.

He nodded.

“That celebration up above is such an empty farce. They will be pressing Ixolde’s remote activation button, but how many of them know that button is a dummy?”

“I wonder what moron’s gonna press that button without knowing a thing.”

“I have no interest, but I’m sure Iwai Sanzou would know.”

“If they actually thought about it, they’d be able to figure it out. Live acceleration requires both timing and personnel, so they’d never give it a remote control like that.”

“The gathered sound will be sealed in the MD located inside the unmanned refinery at the central pocket in the deepest part of Ixolde. Only after eliminating as much as possible will it be automatically placed in storage.”

Souichirou repeated the same words he had heard in the underground operating room the day before.

Saki rested his head in his hand.

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“The storage room is in the center of Ixolde. You can’t get there without going through the emergency passageway in front of the operating room unless you dug a new hole in the schoolyard. And where else could they hope to steal that strongest Rhythm from?”

“The only other option is the central pocket three hundred meters below ground.”

Saki sighed at Souichirou’s words and looked to the Babel Gun visible from the control room’s window.

“Ixolde’s a tricky thing.”

“From Tokyo’s perspective, the only damage will be to Kansai if they can steal the strongest Rhythm and return triumphant to Nagoya.”

“And if they defeat you, Kansai will lose its cornerstone.”

Souichirou finally turned to face Saki.

“Sorry. I’m going to graduate soon, and I had hoped to end my term uneventfully.”

“Don’t be like that. I’ll follow you for life.”

A quiet laugh rang emptily in the air.

“This is probably our last festival before graduation.”

“I need to make sure I am not burned,” said Souichirou quietly. “I do not want to be the festival bonfire.”

With that, he turned around to face the automatic door out of the control room.

“I’ll be waiting in the lobby, Seiji.”

“Huh? You aren’t going to watch the gathering of the sound?”

“This will soon be a holy ground meant only for those who have put in so much work here.”

“I see.”

Saki nodded and sighed.

The two boys left everything to those who belonged there and exited the room to prepare for battle.