Editing City Series:Volume6a Chapter3 (section)

===Part 2===

When Hazel reopened her eyes, she saw a white linoleum ceiling overhead.

That ceiling was rushing by with a rising and falling speed reminiscent of a heartbeat. Berger was carrying her while he ran. She noticed his face was shockingly close by.

…''We’re running through a school building, aren’t we?

That strangely calm thought was followed by the ceiling collapsing behind them where something had slammed into it. A line of destruction ran through the ceiling and it instantly caught up to and surpassed them. The ceiling collapse along that line, causing pillars of rubble to crash down.

Berger clicked his tongue.

“Does that gun get more destructive the more worked up he is? Damn that excitable old man.”

They were surrounded by rumbling and Berger weaved through the falling rubble as he ran.

Hazel noticed something like oil drip onto her cheek while he carried her.

…''Blood?

“D-Dog! Put me down!!”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.”

She ignored his casual tone and tried to break free of his arm around her hips.

It was no use. She gulped at how unexpectedly strong his grip was and pressed herself up against him instead.

Instead of breaking his grip, she worked to wriggle free of it.

“Wait, you moron.”

“You’re the moron!”

Once her feet were on the cold hallway floor, she began to run.

She ran alongside him with the sounds of destruction behind her, but her feet got tangled up below her.

She looked down to see she was wearing sandals. Those things were slowing her down.

“I’ve had about enough of you!”

She voiced her protest against the sandals before kicking her running feet to launch the sandals from them.

She resumed running with her bare feet and snatched the sandals from the air in front of her.

“That’s a neat trick for a girl with such a well-to-do family,” commented Berger.

She ran up alongside him on the left and noticed a trail of blood from his forehead to his cheek.

“Um, a-are you okay?”

“This is nothing as long as you aren’t hurt. I’m doing the best job I can given the circumstances. I take my work seriously, after all.”

The collapse of the ceiling picked up speed. It spread to the sides as well.

They frantically sped up, but then a pillar of wreckage fell right in front of Hazel. Ceiling panels, soundproofing material, insulation, metal, and concrete were stacked up like the layers of a cake in the falling pillar.

“Eh!?” she shouted just before an arm in black reached over from the side.

The horizontal strike shattered the pillar that should have crashed into her head from above.

“I won’t let anything hurt you. Don’t forget that.”

“You really do take your work seriously, huh?”

“You too will eventually understand why, Hazel. Assuming you aren’t all talk, that is.”

“All talk?”

He did not clarify what he meant and instead asked her a question.

“But, Hazel Mirildorf, why do they want you so badly?”

“Can’t you figure it out? Isn’t your perception the second best in the world or something?”

“Perception? I’m the second worst in the world when it comes to that. …Also, um, yeah.”

“Eh?”

“Can you swing your left arm like this?”

Still running and looking utterly confused, she mimicked his motion by swinging her left hand and the wooden sandal she held in it. At that very moment, they came across an intersection in the hallway.

One of Bermark’s men ran out from the left.

“Eh?”

Her swinging sandal slammed into his face.

He spun around a full rotation from the impact and vanished from view as she continued to run.

The solid impact had felt unexpectedly fulfilling from her end. But…

“W-wait, are you having me help you with your violence?”

“Think of it as a way of showing that overexcited old man you won’t do what he says.”

“Um…what happens if that guy does catch me?”

“The simplest guess would be…well, you know. They send you back to the Heidenheim. But…”

…''But?

“Why is the Geheimnis Agency here? Those Dragoon descendants have always worked behind the scenes in this country, but now they’re keeping the police and the MPs away in order to pursue you. The city must be under martial law at the moment. But why?”

“Don’t ask me. I guess they could use me as a hostage to threaten my dad.”

“Only the military would want to do that, but that old man’s from the Geheimnis Agency. Or is the agency hoping to recruit your dad? Even after he failed to stop what happened 2 years ago?”

Hazel frowned at how those words seemed to stab into her heart.

But Berger kept talking.

“Nothing to say to that, huh? I know what you must be thinking: your dad isn’t the type to budge even if they take you hostage.” He took a breath and raised his right index finger before continuing. “I agree that Oscar Mirildorf isn’t the kind of soldier who would act on a private matter like that.”

Hazel had started hanging her head without even noticing, so Berger slapped her on the shoulder.

She looked up to find he was looking at her as he continued to run. The look on his face was sincere.

“So can you think of any other reason they’d be after you, Hazel? Has anything happened recently? For example…”

“For example?”

The look on his face grew even more serious.

“Well, I’m not sure how to put this tactfully, but…”

“What?” she asked with a hint of concern.

“Have you been a naughty girl?”

“No!” she shouted back.

He gave her a bitter but toothy grin and she looked away from him.

…''He’s teasing me!

But she said something else.

“The only thing that’s happened recently is this eye.”

“What eye?”

“I was blinded in one eye when they hit me during my arrest. Then I got a fever in the Heidenheim, and-”

“Hold on. Are you saying they gave you that blue eye in the hospital?”

“I didn’t want them to, but the doctors seemed in a real hurry to get it done.”

She noticed a change in him as she explained this. He grew a lot more tense.

She slowed her pace as they approached the end of the hallway.

“What’s wrong?”

She found him staring straight at her eye.

She met that gaze for a few seconds and his expression gradually grew into one matching a sigh and his eyebrows lowered.

“I don’t know what it means, but that must be it!”

She did not understand any of this.

…''What must be it?

Before she could ask that, a voice reached them from behind.

<The Freeshooter does not let an enemy escape.

He releases the hounds and looses his arrow.>

Hazel looked back to see a line of gathered light flying down the hallway toward them.

She frantically looked forward to see them running toward a large glass door. Breaking through that to escape outside would not allow them to avoid the pursuing shot.

And the enemy unleashed a second shot as well.

Bermark’s Text rang loud. His deep voice pierced through the hallway.

<Racing hounds, pursuing hounds.

Grow faster, grow swifter, grow stronger, grow sharper.>

She looked back to see a third arrow beyond the first and second ones accelerating their way.

She gulped and slowed her pace while Bermark’s ordinary voice reached her ears.

“Are you still willing to mock my Freischütz, ‘Wild Hund’!?”

“Shut it, hound. Your ferocity doesn’t change that you’re just someone’s pet!!”

Hazel heard Berger raise his voice.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let anything hurt you.”

He slammed his feet against the floor to stop and circled behind her.

He placed himself between her and the incoming magic bullets.

“…”

She too came to a frantic stop.

She staggered forward, but looked back to see that dark back standing within arm’s reach.

He was thin, but his back gave off the pressure of a solid wall.

He thrust his right hand out into the darkness with Gelegenheit in his grasp.

That was when she noticed a change in Gelegenheit’s shape. A commercial Size D Phlogiston Tank had been inserted into the connector on the bottom of the hilt.

“Hazel.”

It took her a moment to realize he had spoken her name.

She lost her chance to react, so he spoke again.

“Hazel Mirildorf!”

“Y-yes!?”

The magic bullets were approaching. They exchanged words in what felt like a mere instant.

“What are your thoughts on leaving this country?”

“I-I don’t like it. Because I didn’t do anything wrong. I…” She hesitated. “I still don’t want to run away! That’s my one and only answer!!”

“Hah, that kinda nonsense shows you’re still just a kid. You should be embarrassed.”

With those words, a dark blade jutted out from Gelegenheit.

It was the polar opposite of the glowing Schwerts and Lanzes used by dogfighting fighter craft. This blade was clearer and more transparent and it seemed to be made from pure willpower given a cutting edge. It was a darkness that had abandoned even beauty.

The pitch black blade extended to a length of about 2 yards and stopped.

Berger did not even glance toward the approaching arrows as he spoke to her.

He held Gelegenheit overhead.

“But, Hazel – Hazel Mirildorf! Do not forget that feeling!”

Then he took action.