Editing City Series:Volume3a Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 3===

Even Hong Kong grew a little quieter by two in the morning.

Even with plenty of nocturnal Glossolalians, the majority of the population was still human.

But one place was reaching its peak business as the final challenge for the day.

The Bird Garden was a famous market west of Mong Kok Station.

The squawking of birds created a great din. Many birds, both large and small, were chirping and tweeting together.

The eaves of the shops on either side of the narrow road were close enough to bump into each other and bird cages were hanging from them all. The smell of birds, chirping, the scissoring and mechanical noises of bird cages being made, the smell of varnish, and the lights all mixed together into a vague heat.

The combined Live of the market was naturally a bright yellow.

The people walking down the road were nocturnal Glossolalians as well as Hong Kong residents and tourists who did not want to waste the night sleeping. A closer look revealed that there were children there as well as adults. Most of the children were locals who were used to being up at this time, so they showed no sign of weariness.

The entire market was filled with bright and lively Lives.

But there was a single gap in that Live performance.

In that one place, the Lives did not advertise their presence. The birds, people, and other things that entered that gap were all focused on the individual at the center.

It was a female Nein Engel with four wings.

It was Genius.

Everyone’s eyes were focused on her wings.

They were wings that no one could ever create and no bird could ever gain.

They were wings that could only exist in one’s imagination.

The birds and people were all focused on those wings.

But Genius did not mind. When the birds stopped chirping and looked up at her, she would look them in the eye and sometimes touch their cage or smile.

She was taking a walk through the city for the first time since leaving J-Gun.

“His younger brother is using the Urban Name of Gunmal, too?”

She smiled bitterly.

…''J-Gun had me call him that when we first met.

The two of them had walked through this area back then.

Even while working at Archs RDC, she had almost never gone out into the city of Hong Kong. She would leave Hong Kong Cave using a dedicated transportation vehicle and she had been able to spend the night in her office.

Also, the idea that Nein Engels were hated by the people of Hong Kong was a fact, not a persecution complex.

That was evident even now.

There was a strange look in the eyes of the people she passed by. They saw her as something that should not be here.

She could sense it all the more when walking alone like this.

“How can Double Lee’s sister manage to live here?”

Genius had never met Double Lee’s younger sister who went by the Urban Name of Akira, but she had long heard the rumors.

She was a Seraph, but she had only two wings due to the deformities all too common in Nein Engels.

She was a tuner just like her brother.

Three years before, she had suddenly left Hong Kong Cave.

And Double Lee had not forgotten her.

“He must have a reason.”

Genius touched a nearby cage. A white dove stared at her from inside the bamboo cage.

She stared back for a while, but finally removed her hand from the cage.

“Sorry,” she said before resuming her walk.

That was when she heard a strange sound.

It was a loud and intense, but it was only a single sound.

It came from a shop that had a rest bench sticking out into the road.

“?”

The sound came again.

It was the chirping of birds, but it was too coordinated. It sounded like they were beginning to sing on some kind of signal. Someone could possibly teach a myna to do that, but this included the voices of much smaller birds.

Curious, Genius walked forward.

A man sat on a bench. He had his back to Genius, he was facing the birds and local children inside the shop, and he held a yueqin.

The birds and children inside the shop were all looking to the man and waiting for him to do something.

“Listen. Basically, the birds just have to make the sound you want. Akira taught you about Tuning, right? This is the same. You let the birds hear your Live.”

The man’s voice sounded a lot like J-Gun’s.

He played a note on the yueqin and the birds sang the same note.

“See? Neat, isn’t it?”

The children nodded and expressed their surprise or amazement.

“From what you said, Akira taught you like this, didn’t she?”

The children voiced their affirmation.

“Then continuing like that would probably be best. At the very least, you won’t become the boring kind of Busters or Tuners that your parents would think of. So when you get home and your mom gets after you, tell her you’re doing it because it’s fun. Ask her what’s wrong with that.”

He laughed and answered someone’s question.

“Me? I’m Akira’s… well, I’m kind of like her friend. We were doing stupid stuff together a bit ago.”

He handed the yueqin to a nearby child.

He seemed to have borrowed it.

When the children saw he had returned the yueqin, they grew excited.

The man rubbed one boy’s head and slowly stood.

Genius recognized the profile she saw.

It was J-Gun.

…''You’re kidding.

“That’s… his brother?”

Before she could accept that fact, he turned his back and she had no way of checking on him any further.

He began to walk away with the children surrounding him.

Even though he was leaving, she took a step back.

…''He mentioned Akira, didn’t he? It can’t be…

Or could it?

Without answering her own question, she bit her lip.

She turned her back on the man.

She ignored everything and hurried away.

She left that market as quickly as she could.