Editing City Series:Volume4b Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 2===

'''2:00 PM

The repairs to Osaka Prefectural #2 would take about two weeks.

Even with workers sent out from the prefectural health department, a repair company from the Houzenji Group, and the Kansai General Student Onmyouji Unit, restoring a three kilometer square of collapsed earth was no small task.

The work was officially said to be the measurement and repairs for a localized Clockquake experiment, but everyone in Osaka knew the truth.

The people avoided that truth because it would not benefit them in any way.

As long as they received large Godquake insurance payouts, rumors would spread, but no one would demand a public announcement of the truth. And even if some smaller voices demanded it, they would fade in time.

Various parts of Osaka were repaired within that almost dependent mood of utilitarianism.

It was lucky that winter break had begun for the schools.

With no classes, it did not matter if the school did not function.

The supplementary and extra lessons for the second term were held at Osaka Prefectural #1 and most of the dorm students temporarily moved to the dorms of other schools or the residences of local wealthy families.

And the wealthy family that took in the greatest number of Prefectural #2 dorm students was the Nanba family.

A large green space was located behind the Naniwa Ward Office.

That was the Nanba family residence.

Two buildings were hidden in the woods surrounded by 200 meter walls.

One was a single-story wooden house and the other was a five-story reinforced concrete dojo for the Modified Purple Electricity Style.

The dojo cut through the wall to border the road and sporadic sounds of bamboo swords could be heard from within.

The first afternoon general lesson was underway.

The retired, housewives with too much time on their hands, college students without a class that afternoon, and workers sent by their company as a form of training were all sparring.

Outside the dojo, the colliding bamboo swords blended together with the rustling of the leaves in the wind.

It was a horribly pure and relaxed sound.

And that sound was audible to the single person in the open-air training ground behind the dojo building.

It was Shoui.

He had removed his coat as he moved his body in the open-air training ground.

He was repeating the simple action known as a push-up.

But his technique was different from normal.

It came down to how he positioned his hands.

The palms were normally pressed against the ground, but he pressed his clenched fists against the ground.

This technique was known as knuckle push-ups.

It required grip strength, wrist strength, and the balance to extend one’s arms perfectly straight.

A normal person would be unable to do 30 of them, but Shoui’s breaths carried a count that had passed 300.

His voice was not yet leaving his throat, but the sound of his breaths provided the count.

As his body moved up and down, his breaths passed 400 and quickly reached 500. Then he maintained the same position but brought his right hand behind his back.

He used just his left arm to continue the knuckle push-ups.

His pace did not drop.

The muscles on his back and shoulders slowly moved without end below his inner suit.

By the time he passed 300, white steam rose into the winter air from his shoulders.

He was beginning to sweat.

That meant his body had only now begun to activate.

He reached 500.

Without taking a break, he placed his right fist on the ground and placed his left hand behind his back.

He began knuckle push-ups with just his right arm.

His pace still did not drop.

In fact, his slow movements were beginning to grow faster.

He passed 200.

As his movements evolved, the steam rose from his back as well as his shoulders.

His body was activating. The back and shoulder muscles pushed up at the inner suit and moved like a separate creature.

Shoui’s body stored a power that looked ready to begin moving and explode out at any moment.

It was a great strength.

The monotonous exercise restrained that power.

He passed 300.

The strength and speed building up inside him had already grown to nearly twice their original size.

But Shoui gradually stored that power inside himself.

–''Shoui – Hear Tech – Auto-Take – Listen – Hit.

His ears listened to the sporadic sounds of bamboo swords coming from within the dojo building.

The rustling of the trees blended together with them.

He let the sounds wash over his body as he continued his exercise in silence.

He passed 400.

More and more strength built up inside him.

It was a nostalgic feeling.

At Nandaimon, he had done this exercise in front of the detached room he had used.

Yuuki had often stood by his side and counted his knuckle push-ups and sit-ups.

…''Two years ago, 200 was plenty.

He reached 500.

He stopped moving and stopped breathing too.

He brought his left hand forward and placed both fists on the ground.

He spread his fingers.

He dug his fingers into the ground like an animal’s claws to raise the palms from the ground.

In that position, he used his toes to kick lightly at the ground.

His legs lifted into the air.

He did not stop there. He bent his arms to control his balance with his legs pointed toward heaven.

He performed a handstand.

His fingers supported his entire body.

But that alone was insufficient.

Once 30 seconds passed, he bent both middle fingers.

His body was supported by a total of eight fingers now.

After another 30 seconds, he bent both index fingers.

After 30 seconds, he bent the ring fingers.

He was down to a total of four fingers.

But his body remained motionless in its handstand.

His grip strength and overall balance supported everything. This was a trick one could not pull off with the unnecessary muscles gained through bodybuilding.

He slowly removed his pinkies.

He supported his body with only the thumbs sticking out from his clenched fists.

30 seconds passed.

“…”

Shoui deeply bent his arms for just a moment, extended them again, and used that force to jump in the direction his back was facing.

He made a perfect half-flip and landed on his feet.

He then faced the wooden training post on the east side of the open-air training ground.

Some faint exhaustion colored his face as he stared at it.

He had only just taken a short break after finishing some questioning from Saki which had lasted until the afternoon.

The slight scars from his injuries the night before had not had a chance to heal and his skin was worn out.

But he stood up.

He said nothing.

He did not move.

He was simply alone.

He continued to stare at the training posts with no apparent expression on his face.

His hair blew in the afternoon wind.

The branches and leaves shook and rustled in the woods.

Several bamboo swords audibly collided.

Shoui moved his hand as if drawn by that sound.

He opened his right fist and raised it for just a moment.

The object in his fist flew straight up.

It was a small gold light.

It was a ring.

The Dog God had given it to him the night before.

It was the one Takada had worn.

The light rose to Shoui’s eye level and then dropped back down.

And the wind blew.

The tree branches shook and the sounds of bamboo swords seemed to combine into a single spray.

On that signal, Shoui’s hand caught the falling gold light and closed into a fist.

From there, he carried it straight forward. His gauntleted fist struck the training post.

It was a quick movement.

–''Shoui – Boxing Tech – Take – Straight Fist – Hit.

The sound of the strike rang out.

It was a loud sound.

A water bird flew from the large lake located between the open-air training ground and the house.

Needless to say, Shoui paid it no heed.

And he did not stop moving there.

He pulled his arm back and threw a somewhat exaggerated punch.

–''Shoui – Boxing Tech – Take – Straight Fist – Hit.

It was a highly telegraphed strike that he would never use in an actual battle. Due to his lack of warming up, it was a somewhat stiff motion.

But it worked just fine against a training post.

It was a strike that allowed him to feel his own strength.

He threw a right.

–''Shoui – Boxing Tech – Take – Straight Fist – Hit.

He threw a left.

–''Shoui – Boxing Tech – Take – Straight Fist – Hit.

The sounds of strikes never ended.

The wind blew.

The woods rustled.

The bamboo swords crashed together.

And pushed on by those sounds, the audible blows continued and accelerated.

He did not cry out as he threw his punches. He could not speak with the bandages around his throat.

He did not have a Dog God.

He did not even have a Rhythm.

The Dis-Worder boy silently punched the unspeaking training post.

He moved quickly.

The continuous sounds rang loud through his steel gauntlets.

It was fast, but it had not been enough.

“…!”

–''Shoui – Savate/Gym/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Combination – Hit.

He added in some footwork for a barrage of blows.

He used his entire body to strike the training post from the left and right.

He stepped in close, spun on his heel, shifted his center of gravity, rotated his hips, put his shoulders into the blows, and timed the extension of his arms.

By combining all of those things, he kept up the blows as a series of motions.

The actions could be called the ultimate in anaerobic exercise.

But this was not enough either.

Shoui thought as he moved.

He thought about how to overcome his opponents.

His opponents were Tokyo Chancellor Nakamura Hisahide and Koto Chancellor Yuuki Yuuki.

Both of them were Killing Holders.

He tried and failed to imagine himself surpassing them.

Something was missing. Something very, very important.

Until the night before, he had had it in some form.

…''The desire to grow stronger so I can fight and protect her.

That desire was missing.

That driving force of his will had disappeared after Yuuki had rejected it the night before.

She had rejected him by telling him he did not need to fight.

“…”

–''Shoui – Savate/Gym/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Combination – Hit.

The sounds of the blows and the impacts returning through his arms briefly blew away his indecision.

He kept up the barrage.

He threw the punches to determine his direction.

With each audible hit, thought filled his mind, his indecision vanished, and only pure imagination remained.

But even in that faint remnant of imagination, Shoui could not defeat his opponents.

He had felt undeniable fear on that bullet train.

He had feared the Flame High’s fire.

Flames could be seen as a manifestation of death and destruction.

But he had overreacted to the fire burning Takada.

If he had not feared the Flame High’s fire, he might have been able to save her.

Shoui had no Words and was familiar with all sorts of Techs and Over Rhythms, so he could of course use healing Rhythms.

But his instinctual fear had overpowered the desire to use one to save her.

…''Why is that?

He did not know.

–''Shoui – Savate/Gym/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Combination – Hit.

…''What did Yamashita Gihei think when he faced Yuuki and me back then?

In his sorrow over Nagoya’s future and his desire to escape the bonds of his family, that boy had fought Yuuki and been killed.

When he had faced Yuuki, had he not feared the power of death and destruction?

Had his mind only contained images of himself defeating Yuuki?

“…Kh.”

A breath escaped.

Shoui had been continuing the barrage without breathing so far.

–''Shoui – Boxing Tech – Take – Straight Fist – Hit.

He released a single punch from a short distance and breathed lightly enough to maintain the tension in his body.

He drew the oxygen into his gut and moved.

He made no preparation whatsoever, but he simply punched to further his thoughts.

–''Shoui – Boxing Tech – Take – Straight Fist – Hit.

:–''Shoui – Boxing Tech – Take – Straight Fist – Hit.

::–''Shoui – Boxing Tech – Take – Straight Fist – Hit.

Thoughts floated up in his mind:

The promise on that night three years ago.

A certain incident two years ago.

His ultimately wasted training over the two years since.

His defeat by and fear of Nakamura.

The truth of his training according to Iba.

Takada’s death.

Yuuki’s rejection.

All of those grew into one large doubt which was answered by his fists.

–''Shoui – Savate/Gym/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Combination – Hit.

His question grew clear.

…''How can I protect her?

If he could not fight and win, he could not protect her.

But he could not imagine himself defeating them.

And yet if he could not defeat those Killing Holders, he could not protect her.

Yuuki Yuuki had killed Yamashita Gihei who had opposed her and Nakamura Hisahide had killed Takada Seigi who should have become his queen.

Shoui recalled Nakamura’s cry when Takada had burned away and vanished.

It had been a powerful cry.

It was a cry only made by someone who had experienced someone’s death.

Shoui could not do that.

He was missing something.

–''Shoui – Savate/Gym/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Combination – Hit.

He had to regain what he had lost.

–''Shoui – Savate/Gym/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Combination – Hit.

He suddenly realized something.

…''I’m still thinking about this even after she rejected me…

If he had given up on it all after the rejection, he would not be out here agonizing over it all while punching the training post.

But he was moving now with no relation to his promise or his past.

He remembered Takada’s words.

“The more indecisive someone is, the stronger their ultimate answer will be. And the people who make powerful decisions are quite indecisive.”

In that case…

…''Am I still trapped in indecision?

The rejection, his fear, and the death of a girl had not led him to a decision.

And his body desired to move.

At the very least, the will of his body had not come to a stop.

“…”

He smiled bitterly.

He stopped his punching.

He stopped his feet.

He took a breath.

He looked up.

He saw the sky.

It was a vast winter sky.

The sun grew pale as it started to sink and the wind whipped through the sky.

The wind was blowing.

The woods were rustling.

He could hear the bamboo swords.

And then he heard something like a dog howling in the distance.

–''Shoui – Hear Tech – Take – Listen – Hit.

It was not a dog.

It was some other animal.

It had come from the house.

…''What is that?

The animal did not howl again, leaving him with no answer.

“…”

He felt there was more to that, but even greater indecision stopped him from pursuing it.

He nodded.

He remained silent, but his body resumed moving.

He stretched his hand behind him to strike the training post and took a deep breath.

Then he truly began moving once more.

And he tried to figure out a way to catch up to those two.