Editing City Series:Volume4a Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 3===

'''6:51 PM

The moon was out.

It could be seen in the night sky even from the shopping district near Osaka Station.

But in a shopping district at nearly seven in the evening, very few people were taking the time to leisurely look up at the moon.

Nagoya Chancellor Yamashita Taeko was one such leisurely person.

She stood in front of the Osaka Hilton hotel that gave a view of both Osaka Station and Hankyu Umeda Station from south of the former station. She was staring into the night sky while sitting on a sidewalk fire hydrant.

During this moon viewing, she tilted her head with a cellphone in her right hand.

“The emergency line won’t get through? And the Student Council’s number is too busy to get in, so the answering machine kicks in. …What happened?”

She set the phone to wait for a call and put it in her pocket.

After a sigh, she fixed both her eyes and mind on the moon.

She was tall.

Even while sitting, she kept about the same height as the people walking along the sidewalk.

Her ponytail only accentuated her height.

But even so, the three claws of the Dragon Emperor false arm touched the sidewalk as it hung from her left shoulder.

It was a massive prosthetic.

A green combat-use license plate was attached to the shoulder like an armor panel.

The artificial muscles and framework made it an embodiment of offensive functionality.

She touched the Dragon Emperor’s armor with her right hand.

“It’s been a year since I met Shoui and got this at the Mountain. I still haven’t used its final stage, though.”

She stood up and used her flesh-and-blood right hand to stroke the dragon relief on the Dragon Emperor’s shoulder.

She stroked it like petting a cat’s back and the shoulder transformed somewhat.

The armor split open and bluish-white light escaped the gap.

“Hey. don’t get carried away just cause it’s yer monthly moonlight bath.”

The Dragon Emperor emitted steam from the exhaust pipe at the top of the upper arm.

It was a living motion.

A slight sound came from the shoulder armor that was swollen out into a single horn at the top. She had not done a thing, but it began opening and closing its armor panels for some self maintenance.

It almost looked like something lurked within the armor.

Taeko narrowed her eyes as she watched the Dragon Emperor.

—''Taeko – Mind Tech – Auto-Take – Detect Killer Intent – Hit!

A stabbing presence suddenly reached her.

“!?”

After that presence, she heard loud voices.

They were screams.

The people walking along the road all produced the screams of victims.

The killer intent and the attacker were elsewhere.

—''Taeko – Hear Tech – Take – Sound Classification – Hit!

Taeko picked through the overlapping screams to listen only to the sound that mattered.

It was the rumbling of an engine.

The vehicle was clearly out of control instead of driving normally along.

It came from the center of the main road to her right.

—''Taeko – Steel Tech – Take – Dragon Emperor #1 Activation – Hit!

“Dragon Emperor! Take it up to #3!”

With that shout, Taeko turned around and saw her enemy.

A white sports car was drifting sideways around the roundabout in front of the station.

—''Taeko – Sight Tech – Take – Spot – Hit.

The car was empty.

There was no driver beyond the windshield.

“Is it being radio controlled!?”

She turned her right shoulder forward and held the Dragon Emperor at the ready.

“Didn’t ya know a Steel Master has no blind spots or limits?”

Meanwhile, the sports car drove straight toward her.

The white car bounced over the curb and onto the sidewalk.

It was less than thirty meters away, so it would arrive in two seconds at sixty kph.

With the sound of tires on the sidewalk, it shot straight toward her.

A bus stop was knocked from the sidewalk.

The screeching of tires and roar of the wind were louder than the roar of the engine. That was proof that it was picking up momentum with its speed.

The sports car brightened its headlights as it charged straight forward.

People screamed, but Taeko was unfazed.

She had the Dragon Emperor and her enemy was not interested in a simple battle.

The change came suddenly.

The empty white sports car hopped up.

“!?”

It was a quick movement. Like a cat pouncing on its prey, the car’s tires acted as legs and it jumped high into the air.

It was an impossible action, but it really did happen and the sports car vanished from Taeko’s field of vision.

“…Kh!”

—''Taeko – Sight Tech – Take – Locate Enemy – Hit!

She could no longer see the moon overhead.

The white car was blotting out the sky.

For the first time in her life, Taeko saw a car perform a moonsault.

The mechanical beast intended to crush her.

Based on its angle of rotation, the bottom of the car’s front end would strike her.

If she dodged, it would slam into the hotel, so she had to intercept it.

Her impatience brought a few questions to mind.

Why was she being targeted?

How could the car perform this odd action?

Thoughts about Shoui and Yuuki also raced through her mind.

—''Taeko – Mind Tech – Take – Focus on Battle – Hit!

“Dragon Emperor!” she shouted. “Activate Thunder High!”

The Dragon Emperor responded with a full-body roar.

The metal arm’s armor trembled as it roared. The vibration had a set rhythm which easily produced the same music as a Rhythm.

Taeko sang her Words to match the Dragon Emperor’s cry.

She sang the song that summoned lightning.

''Nobody takes the middle road

''Nothing lives or dies

''It all either falls into ruin or survives

''Everyone, everyone, everyone

The Dragon Emperor emitted bluish-white electricity from its shoulder, fist, and claws.

Now it only needed to move.

The bottom of the sports car had arrived within arm’s reach, so Taeko did not hesitate to step forward.

In a normal fight, she would have sent a jabbing feint out from her right shoulder, but that flesh-and-blood arm would be of little use against a car.

It all came down to the one attack, so she made her move.

—''Taeko – Gym Tech – Take – Step Forward – Super Hit.

:—''Taeko – Savate Tech – Take – Leap – Hit.

::—''Taeko – Thunder High Rhythm/Box Tech – Multi-Take – Ether Strike – Super Hit!

A series of Tech decisions created a series of movements.

She used her entire body to perform a smash uppercut with the Dragon Emperor and it struck the car’s chassis.

Her anti-shock reflective-armor bodysuit briefly fixed her joints in place to receive the Dragon Emperor’s several tons of recoil.

There was a loud sound of impact, but it did not end there. She knew the car was empty, so she kept her attack going to the end.

While still punching the car from below, she forcibly jumped upwards.

With a roar, the sports car was carried into the night sky.

The Dragon Emperor’s fist stabbed into the engine space and started tearing through the engine as they continued to ascend.

Immediately, the Dragon Emperor emitted lightning in plasma form.

The car let out a scream as the heat caused the glass and decorations to explode.

This was the power of the Thunder High.

The night sky was dyed white.

She yelled in the center of that light while tearing the car’s engine to pieces.

“Perish!”

She swung the Dragon Emperor all the way up.

The metal emitted a further scream, the lightning light gathered together, and the car’s bumper was melted apart.

Taeko added a gentle rotation to her uppercut and prepared for her landing.

The sports car’s white paint had been scorched beyond recognition and the force of the blow sent it flying even higher in the opposite direction from Taeko.

Just as she landed, a flower blossomed from the car in the night sky.

A deafening explosion sounded out.

The crimson flames scattered metal components in every direction. The residual effect of the Thunder High caused each one to become plasma and vanish in midair.

Taeko swung up the Dragon Emperor and smiled.

At the same time…

—''Taeko – Sight Tech – Auto-Take – Detect – Hit.

A single person moved against the flow of people who were panicking and gathering on the road.

The boy wore an obviously high-quality three-piece suit and had a white scarf around his shoulders.

He alone moved against the crowd, was not panicked, did not look to Taeko through his glasses, and calmly walked to the entrance of the Osaka Hilton.

“What an odd guy…”

Just as she said that, a slight shadow covered the moonlight falling from above.

“?”

The source of that shadow landed right in front of her eyes.

Someone holding a sheathed sword landed there.

It happened so quickly that not even Taeko had time to put up her guard.

“!?”

The sound of his landing had a metallic ring to it.

That was the unique sound of someone with prosthetics.

Taeko recognize the boy who landed in a kneeling position, so she shouted out on reflex.

“Osaka Chancellor…Nanba Souichirou!?”

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