Editing City Series:Volume4b Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 2===

'''4:47 PM

After reaching the rooftop, Taeko first looked around the battlefield.

The floating garden had a large circular hole in the middle and the narrow walkway drew a circle around it. It was only wide enough for three adults to walk abreast. That was enough room for walking, but not much for fighting.

The landings provided more space, so they would be the key to this battle.

“…”

Taeko silently stepped out onto the rooftop.

The first thing to greet her was the wind.

The winter north wind blew in strong and cold to cool her heated body.

But Taeko defied the wind’s will as her long hair whipped behind her.

–''Taeko – Sight Tech – Take – Find Enemy – Hit!

The enemy was extremely close by.

She saw Yuuki standing not even five meters ahead.

Taeko spoke to the silhouette she saw in the setting sun.

“It’s been too long.”

She smiled bitterly and Yuuki’s voiced asked a quiet question.

“What is the Tokyo Chancellor doing?”

“Oh, he gave me a single day to take care of my own plans.”

Yuuki did not respond, but Taeko could not help but say more.

“He really plans on crushin’ Kansai. What are ya gonna do about that?”

Yuuki did not respond.

Nor did she move.

“Hmph,” snorted Taeko as she raised the Dragon Emperor which was wrapped in the Lightning High’s light.

The Dragon Emperor’s First Activation could only pull off simple actions.

The dragon’s will could not interfere now.

So she ran forward.

“Yuukiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!”

She shouted her enemy’s name.

That name had long been on her mind.

She had once tried but failed to forget it.

For her, coming to Osaka with the Tokyo Chancellor had been a ceremony announcing Kansai as the enemy.

But that had only been an excuse to fight Yuuki.

Her enemy was right in front of her.

She would reach her in the next moment.

–''Taeko – Lightning High/Steel/ Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Lightning High Strike – Hit!

Her fist slammed into Yuuki’s body.

There was no impact.

There was no sound.

There was only…

“…Eh!?”

Taeko voiced her confusion as Yuuki’s body crumbled away.

It was a liquid.

It splashed down like water.

What had taken Yuuki’s shape and color regained the transparency and strength of water as it crumbled.

It was not Yuuki.

As proof, neither of the eyes in the sinking face were prosthetic.

“A dummy!?”

Tuners would sometimes rearrange the Lives of the wind or dirt to create a copy of themselves to act as a decoy.

As if to prove that, Yuuki’s voice arrived clearly from behind Taeko.

“That is the Suzaku Reflection passed down by Nandaimon.”

Without turning around, Taeko jumped left on reflex.

She jumped toward the large space of the landing instead of the walkway.

Rather than icy pressure, a pure chill pursued her and dropped down from above.

This attack was different from before.

–''Taeko – Savate/Gym/Dodge Tech – Counter-Multi-Take – Great Dodge – Hit!

She leaped.

She leaped for the sole purpose of escaping.

She leaped with her back to her enemy and without a single thought of her brother or Shoui in her mind.

That was the right thing to do.

She saw something out of the corner of her eye.

A five meter spherical mass of air had frozen white and it crashed down onto the rooftop.

The attack had no weight or anything else, but when it burst, it created great destruction.

The temperature difference whipped up the wind.

Even the winter air was further cooled by the barrier of air, so a mist of frost formed.

The barrier ate into the floor and railings.

With a sound like breaking glass, the floor and railings shattered.

This world of frigid temperatures left even metal so brittle it would break from the slightest impact.

Everything was turned to sand.

Yuuki had once used this technique to destroy the schoolyard of Private Showa.

And it had also been the one to kill Taeko’s brother.

“————!”

After dodging the attack, Taeko saw the broken floor and railings falling along with the building.

Taeko cried out.

She made her presence known with a cry of both fear and anger as the sound of freezing faded away.

And a thought flashed through her mind.

''No,'' that will told her.

Her will uttered Words when she saw Yuuki’s technique.

''Something isn’t right.

She did not know what was not right or how it was not right, but definite doubt rose within her when she saw Yuuki’s technique.

Something did not match her memories or predictions.

But that doubt did not arrive in time.

“!”

Her shout erased her hesitation.

She searched for the enemy.

–''Taeko – Sight Tech – Take – Find Enemy – Hit!

A figure in a red blazer was circling to her right, between her and the landing’s wall.

That was a good decision.

Taeko could not use her injured right arm very much, so she would have trouble with the enemy on that side.

But she did not care.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

–''Taeko – Boxing Tech – Take – Strike – Hit!

With no Rhythm or anything else, she slammed her right fist toward Yuuki.

She hit.

She felt her fist sink into her opponent’s gut.

Yuuki doubled over.

At the same time, Taeko lost all sensation from her right arm past the shoulder.

The broken shoulder had completely shattered.

“!”

She clenched her teeth and spun around.

–''Taeko – Steel/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Grab – Hit!

:–''Taeko – Steel/Gym/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Throw – Hit!

She grabbed her opponent’s collar with the Dragon Emperor and threw her with an overhand swing.

“Gahh!”

She slammed the girl head-first into the tile floor as cold air continued to rise from it.

Yuuki’s glasses slid across the floor and the sound of impact was accompanied by a quieter metallic sound.

Yuuki bounced and landed face down.

She was right next to the hole she herself had created earlier.

If she fell, she would not escape unharmed.

Taeko would not let her escape.

She stepped forward.

She crouched down just as Yuuki tried to lift herself up with her arms.

Taeko swung the Dragon Emperor’s first upwards.

–''Taeko – Steel/Gym/Savate/Boxing Tech – Multi-Take – Great Strike – Hit!

Just before that attack hit, Yuuki rolled on her side to turn toward Taeko while still on the floor.

She launched a spell.

It was water.

It had the form and meaning of a wall.

It was a powerful and unavoidable impact.

The transparent wall of ultra-pressurized water slammed into Taeko at almost the same time as the Dragon Emperor broke through the water wall and hit Yuuki.

They collided.

Both their bodies were blown away.

Taeko was knocked back a few meters and thrown toward the walkway.

She hit the wall of the circular walkway.

–''Taeko – Gym Tech – Take – Control Balance – Miss.

She continued rolling backwards.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow…”

She muttered to herself and stood up.

The water soaking her body returned to ether and vanished.

She searched for her enemy while feeling cold due to the body heat it had taken from her.

–''Taeko – Sight Tech – Take – Find Enemy – Hit!

Her Tech worked, but she could not see Yuuki.

She only saw the large hole torn in the landing floor.

It was five meters across and had been formed by the flash freezing.

There was nothing and nobody there.

It was obvious what had happened.

Yuuki had fallen.

“…”

Taeko sighed as her long hair fluttered in the wind.

“Is it…over?”

Just as she said that…

–''Taeko – Hear Tech – Take – Hear – Hit.

She heard the sound of bending metal.

“…?”

–''Taeko – Sight Tech – Take – Find Enemy – Hit!

Taeko saw a hand holding onto the edge of the hole.

In the blink of an eye, the right arm puled Yuuki’s upper body through the hole.

Taeko realized her face was colored by surprise.

“Ya survived!?”

Yuuki did not answer.

She silently pulled the rest of herself back up onto the floating garden.

But that was not all.

She held a giant object in her left arm.

It was Housei.

It was the giant staff that Taeko had punched away from her earlier.

“…It can’t be!?”

Taeko realized the flash freezing spell had been both a means of attack and a means of retrieving Housei.

Housei had stabbed into the ceiling from the perspective of the escalator below, so from the roof, she had only needed to peel back the floor.

“…”

Yuuki silently raised Housei.

Ether light already filled Housei’s ether firing section.

It was a powerful light.

That light would end this.

“Kh…!”

Taeko clicked her tongue and prepared to defend.

Her left shoulder was suddenly pulled down.

“Dragon Emperor!?”

The Dragon Emperor would not move.

It was only at the First Activation, but it stopped moving on its own. The dragon’s will fully controlled the false arm now.

“Dragon Emperor…!”

Taeko shouted at it and Yuuki launched her spell toward her.

It was the flash freezing.

The white bullet was nearly ten meters across and it filled the space overhead as it dropped down like a fist.

There was no dodging it.

The Dragon Emperor was heavy and would not move.

The air audibly exploded with the icy temperature.

Hearing that, Taeko knew she would be turned to sand.

“…!”

In that instant, a question reached her mind.

Something was odd.

And she realized what it was: the result.

Her brother had died, leaving behind only his arm.

Not a single drop of blood had remained at the scene.

But she would be scattered as sand.

Why was there a difference?

In fact, how much power did this flash freezing spell have against a human?

The schoolyard and school building had been shattered at Private Showa, but no one had died.

Something was odd.

This was the doubt she had subconsciously noticed when she saw the previous destruction.

Before she could wonder what it meant, a certain fact occurred to her: The Dragon Emperor refused to fight Yuuki.

The results were different and the dragon that could read people’s wills had made a baffling decision.

Those two facts led to a single truth.

Taeko was surprisingly willing to accept it.

“…Ya moron.”

The icy blast collided with her and she shut her eyes.

In that instant, the Dragon Emperor instantly activated itself.