Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 2===

Inside the coalition maintenance base zone, the characteristics of the equipment varied even within the same facility depending on which force they belonged to. An Elite girl who was called the princess by others stood within a mobile portion of the base zone created from multiple large vehicles.

Multiple such facilities existed and the one the princess was currently inside was not the even larger one that contained her personal Object, the Baby Magnum. She was in a special facility located next to the one for the Object. This one was for maintaining the Elite pilot’s body.

The area was so large it was hard to believe it was inside a vehicle and it contained a clear semi-circle dome about 10 meters across. The Elite girl was standing in the middle of that dome and countless devices and human eyes were observing her from outside the dome. The people were from the medical team that looked after the Elite girl’s health.

The old lady that normally maintained the Object was mixed in with the medical team and she operated a device that looked like the kind of recording console used to dub animation or movies.

“Okay, let’s get started. Have you finished preparing the instrument?” said the old lady.

Her voice was not transmitted by sound. Instead, orange words were displayed on the inner clear wall of the dome. This was because the dome was soundproofed. The girl read the words that scrolled across like on an electric scoreboard. As a music score raced across the clear and thin monitor before her eyes, she put on the special goggles also used to pilot the Object.

She held up a long, thin silver flute and entered text by having the infrared input function of the goggles read the motion of her eyes.

“Tuning of the flute is complete,” she said.

“I take it there are no issues with the score either. In that case, let the metronome go. You can begin your performance whenever you like.”

Having read the old lady’s words, the princess lightly let fly the paper airplane she held in one hand. While watching the papercraft gently arcing through the air, she held the silver flute horizontally up to her mouth.

She blew into it and moved her white fingers.

A small noise was emitted and the nose of the paper airplane tilted up slightly. It was made of a special material that was distorted by sound waves.

“Yes, yes, that’s good. Bring the metronome into a 5 meter radius loop at an altitude of 140 centimeters, completing one loop every 30 seconds.”

“Inartistic performances like that are boring.”

With the flute still to her mouth, the princess continued moving her eyes to continue the conversation. Notes moved dizzyingly  across the monitor displaying the score, but there was no uncertainty in the movement of her fingers. It was less like the movements of a music-loving musician and more like the movements of a robot arm accurately soldering items to a circuit board in a semiconductor plant.

“Does it feel good to be surrounded by sound like that?”

“You mean the point vibrations of the dome and the sound I am creating? If I was satisfied with only that, I would feel like I was insulting orchestras.”

There was not merely a single method of regulating an Elite’s body. Nor was there merely a different format for each army or nation. The ideal method was built up for each individual Elite. For some, it was continually swimming within a large pool, aiming for the fastest time. For some, it was solving every single problem on an answer sheet similar to a college entrance exam. For some, it was playing chess against a super computer. And for some like the princess, it was to surround oneself in carefully modulated noise.

“Do you have a complaint with the instrument? For a change of pace, you could always try using the electric guitar.”

“Having the sound of my breath mixed in would have an effect on the regulation. I am using the flute because the breaths are written into the music.”

Other sounds could not be mixed in with the music. She could talk with no problem by taking breaks from playing, but the regulation could not continue during those breaks.

That was why the Elite girl was going through the annoying effort of speaking with her eyes while playing with her mouth. Eventually, she reached the final note and that stage of the regulation was complete. The princess removed the flute from her mouth and the paper airplane that had been kept aloft by the music slowly fell to the floor.

The princess picked up the metronome and prepared for the next song, but then she suddenly looked up. Through the clear dome, she had spotted a familiar face entering through the open entrance of the large vehicle.

It was Quenser.

He was being pushed forward by his companion Heivia and his expression made it seem he did not know why he was there. Seeing that, the princess silently nodded.

(Heivia can be rough, but he is certainly considerate.)

Among the group monitoring her, only the non-medical old lady seemed to notice the change in her mental state. The orange text read, “How about we take a short break,” and the soundproofed door of the clear dome opened automatically.

Quenser entered and the princess moved her eyes to give instructions to the dome. Immediately afterwards, the polarization of the clear dome walls changed, making them white.

“Wah!” shouted Quenser in surprise as he looked around.

The princess approached him and said, “What are you here for today?”

“Oh, Heivia was saying something about us needing to drop by and remind you not to step on us since we’re going to be on a mission together.”

(What kind of person does that brute think I am?)

The princess was a tad miffed.

Oblivious to that fact, Quenser looked at the silver flute the princess held.

“Hehh. Is that a flute? I saw people using them in a wind orchestra back in the safe country, but I just couldn’t figure out how they were using them. I probably wouldn’t even be able to make a noise if I tried.”

“It is easier than it looks. Do you want to try?” asked the Elite girl and Quenser’s face lit up even more than she had expected.

That was enough to bring the princess back into a good mood, but…

“You hold a flute to the side, right? Huh? Does it go to the right or the left?”

Before she could say anything, Quenser innocently brought the flute to his mouth.

She had been planning to at least wipe the mouthpiece off before handing it to him, so she was standing with a blank look and a blush on her face. However, an even greater shock ran through her soon after.

The girl was having her body regulated by the sound of the instrument, so just as a small, stupid sound escaped the flute, a deluge of strange feelings assaulted her spine.

“…!?”

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The princess’s mouth wordlessly opened and closed as she curled up her spine. A specific suggestion command would release her from the regulatory effects of the flute, but she had completely forgotten to give the command.

As a soft, charming light appeared in her eye and the light of reason tried to deny it, the girl’s body stiffened, but Quenser was as clueless as ever.

As he tried to accurately produce the “do re mi fa sol la si do” scale, the strengths of the breaths he was using were completely wrong.

“Huh? The notes aren’t coming out right. They’re distorted. And how am I supposed to press down to made a ‘do’?”

With each grating noise produced by the flute, the princess’s body trembled unnaturally. A glossy light peach color appeared in her white cheeks and tears appeared in the edges of her eyes. Her slender arms and legs turned inward against her wishes. As the girl rubbed her thighs together, she had no idea why she naturally wanted to do so.

“Do re mi…fa? Is this ‘fa’? …Huh?”

Finally, Quenser noticed something was wrong.

The princess blushed even further due to the conflict between relief and embarrassment at his finally noticing.

“A-are you okay? Do you need to use the bathroom?” asked Quenser with a worried expression as he looked at her face.

Immediately afterwards, the elite girl did something she did not often do.

She punched a human being directly with her small fist.