Editing City Series:Volume4b Chapter 11 (section)

===Part 2===

'''Same Time

As the heat rose into the sky, something was visible on the peak of the castle tower.

It was a person.

It was Koto Chancellor Yuuki Yuuki.

She stood perfectly still as the turbulence vanished from the sky and the night quieted down.

The loud sounds of impact in the distance were the proof that someone else continued to fight.

They were the sounds of a fight she could not take part in.

“…”

She pushed her glasses up her nose and stared down below.

The first thing to enter her field of vision was the exposed wood and insulation where the roof tiles had been stripped away.

Then she looked further down below the broken edge of the roof.

“Nothing there.”

Sure enough, there was only darkness on the ground below.

Even in the night, she could see the pitch black hole 100 meters across.

That was the scar of the Word Particle Cannon hit.

It was the same attack that had destroyed the schoolyard of Prefectural #2 where Ixolde was.

Ixolde’s underground space had been there to receive it before, but that was not the case here.

The ruins of Yamazato Maru had been a park with trees, but the 1 hectare space had been entirely blown away.

The hole of destruction had devoured the stone steps and height differences that should have been there and it extended as far as the inner moat on the other side.

“…”

Yuuki said nothing and looked up into the sky.

Smoke, rather than clouds, was spreading through Osaka’s sky.

That smoke had been created when everything that had made this land had been blown away and annihilated.

That smoke could be called “priceless”.

An airplane’s identifier lights pierced through the smoke.

The corporate airplane was likely checking on the status of the battle.

She brushed up her hair as she watched it.

Small pieces of dirt spilled from her hair as she did so.

A gentle wind began to blow and it carried the scent of shimmering heat.

And…

–''Yuuki – Sight Tech – Auto-Take – Spot – Hit!

Yuuki looked at a certain point in the sky.

–''Yuuki – Army Tech – Take – Identify – Hit!

It was not an airplane’s identifier lights.

It was a more primitive light.

It was the light of fire and it was descending from the sky.

The Dog God barked quietly at her feet.

But she kept her eyes on the sky.

She confirmed the identity of the fire.

–''Yuuki – Sight Tech – Take – Confirm – Hit!

It was clothing.

A mountain hoodie fell as it burned.

She recognized the hoodie.

“It can’t be…”

“Oh, but it can.”

She heard a voice behind her.

It was a boy’s voice. It was Tokyo Chancellor Nakamura Hisahide’s voice.

“!”

She looked back surprise, but it was too late.

She tried to quickly turn around, but a presence much like a heated wind reached her right hand.

Immediately afterwards, an artillery-like kick jabbed into her side.

The impact rang loud.

“———!”

She could not scream.

She just barely kept herself from falling and grabbed at the roof with her left hand which did not hold Housei.

She performed a side flip.

–''Yuuki – Gym Tech – Take – Control Position – Miss.

When her right foot landed back on the tile-less roof, the ankle went limp.

She had twisted the ankle that had been injured in the battle with Taeko.

–''Yuuki – Mind Tech – Take – Ignore Pain – Hit.

She could ignore the pain and her body could obey its own functions.

“…”

She slowly stood up by extending her right leg.

A boy stood in front of her: Tokyo Chancellor Nakamura Hisahide.

He raised his right hand into the sky with a terribly serious look on his face.

The mountain hoodie fell into that hand.

“I escaped trouble like this in Prefectural #2’s schoolyard too.”

He forcefully swung the burning hoodie around.

The fire was extinguished.

Some faint ashes flew into the night air.

Yuuki spoke quietly when she saw those ashes.

“You burned the hoodie…to use it as a shield?”

“I had the fire on the hoodie spread to the Word Particle light.”

He put on the hoodie.

He pulled headphones from the pocket of the red hoodie with one sleeve burned off.

He hummed the Fire High Rhythm as he put the headphones in his ears.

And he smiled bitterly.

He looked to Yuuki.

“That attack seems to have shaken me.”

“You mean it disturbed your Lives?”

“My pulse is too disturbed to use the Flame High.”

He removed the headphones and his smile grew even bitterer.

His lips formed a smile that was barely even a smile.

He immediately rushed in at full speed.

The bottom of his red hoodie instantly spread out in the darkness.

He moved fast.

–''Yuuki – Dodge Tech – Take – Dodge – Hit!

It was no use.

It happened before she could dodge.

It happened too soon for her to react.

Nakamura’s Rhythm-less kick hit her right arm from the side.

The blow had the weight of a log.

“!”

The impact knocked Housei from her hand and the staff rolled along the roof.

She lost her balance and nearly rolled off of the roof.

–''Yuuki – Gym Tech – Take – Control Position – Hit!

But before even that could happen, Nakamura kicked again from the left.

Not even a Dodge Tech would have been fast enough.

Before the damage could even reach her, she was sent flying in the opposite direction.

She stumbled and returned to the peak of the roof.

She somehow managed to stand.

“————!”

She belatedly gasped at the weight of the blows to her body.

But she did not scream.

No, she could not.

“That’s a Killing Holder for you.”

She heard Nakamura’s voice.

By the time she realized he was right in front of her, it was too late.

He made an attack from the White Noise that prevented her Sight or Hear Techs from sensing his presence.

The Harmonist’s attack arrived instantly.

She caught a brief glimpse of a forward kick that could break through a sheet of steel.

“!?”

It was a direct hit.

Her right ankle collapse and she was unable to reduce the damage by dodging or falling back, so she was blown away.

Her body doubled over and flew through the air.

A moment later, her back struck one of the ''shachihoko'' on the ends of the roof.

“…!”

She gasped.

The breath was knocked out of her.

The vibration that hit her body had numbed her lungs.

She could not produce her Words.

All strength left her legs and her butt fell onto the roof.

Her sides were numb after the two kicks and her arms hung limply down.

She could not move.

Only her eyes moved behind the glasses that had miraculously stayed on her face.

The Dog God was to her right.

The spirit beast was within arm’s reach and it only looked silently up at her.

Her eyes met the small animal’s and she mouthed something to it.

“…”

But the Dog God did not understand. She narrowed her eyes when it tilted its head a little.

And she looked forward.

Nakamura Hisahide stood there.

He was 3 meters away.

From there, he could make a kick after a single step approach.

He rolled up the surviving sleeve of his hoodie.

“You’re not making this easy.” His breath appeared white in the air. “I think I’ll settle this and things down below all at once.”

He spread his hand and held it forward.

A silver ring glittered on his right hand’s ring finger.

He clenched the hand into a fist.

He tightly clenched it.

His lips moved and formed a statement.

“I am king.”

Yuuki said nothing.

She looked at Nakamura without even nodding.

Her gaze alone held strength.

It was far from a resigned strength.

Nakamura snorted a little when she looked him in the eye.

“It’s no use.”

He breathed in deeply and put in his headphones.

He breathed out.

That white breath was followed by fire bursting from his hands.

The crimson light of the flames danced in the darkness with Osaka’s nightscape in the background.

The fire raced out while crackling in the air.

Nakamura moved.

He took a step forward.

His straight line kick was directed toward Yuuki’s face as she sat on the roof.

A yell of focus escaped his lips.

“Sheahhh!!”

The kick flew.

And at that exact moment, a vermilion pillar rose between the two of them.

“!?”

It was a staff.

It was Yuuki’s staff known as Housei. It stabbed into the roof with a solid sound.

The unexpected intruder threw off Nakamura’s movement.

His kick changed course and hit Housei instead of Yuuki.

With a metallic clang, the giant tuning fork of a staff turned to ashes in an instant.

The kick rotated around and toward Yuuki’s back.

“Kh…!”

But he made a jump without leaving any kind of opening.

He moved away from Yuuki and landed.

He put up his guard and shouted.

“Who is it!?”

Yuuki looked in the direction he had yelled.

A boy stood on the edge of the roof with Osaka’s nightscape behind him.

The boy had a bandanna around his forehead and a red prosthetic in place of his right arm.

Yuuki recognized him.

His presence and the look in his eyes were the same as 3 years ago.

So she called his name. She called the name of the boy she had been waiting for.

She squeezed at her lungs and forced the voice from her throat.

“…Shoui-kun!!”