Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter7 (section)

===Part 2===

Hazel tilted her head while viewing the collapsed school building.

The enemy Heavy Barrels appeared to have flown away into the sky. They didn’t attack.

She heard the blowing wind and the scorching heat enveloping everything.

The belly of a giant aerial warship hovered overhead.

Berger had just finished removing the bullets and applying first aid, so he began preparing Schwarz Löwe for combat. After Write Bringing into it, he would place her on the shoulder like he had in the past, shove Pale into the copilot cockpit, and get moving.

After attaching the transmitter to the Gard-class warship, they would evacuate and meet up with Corelle.

That much was all planned out.

“Um…”

Only after hearing her voice did Hazel realize she was approaching the school building. Part of her was amused, but she couldn’t stop either.

There was a fallen tree in her way, so she hopped over it.

The collapsed school was now right in front of her. The smell of the trees roasted by the surrounding heat was powerful. It reminded her of when she would mop the wooden floors of her school back when she lived in Germany.

The school had a large chunk taken out, like someone had dug it out with a giant shovel.

She looked inside using the glow of the burning city and found the second-floor classroom was almost entirely destroyed. The first floor ceiling had collapsed and the second floor’s desks and concrete had poured down to fill the classroom below.

There was a window on the hallway side of the classroom too, so she could see the hallway past the rubble. The glass was broken, but the classroom must have had a very open design even when everything was intact.

All of the desks were made for two. The top opened up to reach a space to store the students’ bags.

…''That’s almost identical to my old school.

She dropped her eyes to part of a broken desk lying at her feet.

The desk had been so old the wood fibers were visible.

…''You couldn’t have written on any paper sitting directly on the desk.

She nodded and then noticed something else.

There was some fresh graffiti carved into the desk. It appeared to be some kind of map. There were houses and a river she guessed was the Rhine. The river’s surface was decorated with several faces drawn with circles and dots.

And…

“Miss.”

She heard Pale’s voice behind her, but she did not turn around.

“Sorry, but could you leave me be for a bit? I really am sorry.”

She looked overhead.

A giant black ship hovered there. They were about to help destroy it. However…

“That ship is protecting this place, isn’t it?”

She lowered her gaze again. All the carved faces on the desk were smiling.

Those faces and the carving reminded her of what she had seen during the day.

Of the brother using the blackboard to teach his sister something in the Village of Pardons.

“…Yes.”

She nodded, held her sword in her right hand, and lightly struck the metal frame at the edge of the classroom.

It made a metallic sound.

She immediately struck it again, making a louder sound.

The Device’s blade was amplifying and purifying the sound to spread it around and help it rule the space around her.

Tension shook the air and even the heat began to cool.

She focused her mind on that sensation and spoke the words that came to mind.

“U-um, I…I think…”

Sounding awkward and unsure, she struck the frame with her sword again.

The sound rang loud and the classroom rubble shook in response.

She let that sound reverberate through her while shutting her eyes.

She could still see some things with her eyes shut: the Lives. She listened to the word color with her ears and found the Lives around her were still very much alive. Even the rubble had not fully accepted its destruction.

…''Yes.

“I think this school wants to remain a school after the war is over.”

Another strike.

“I think the school’s students want the same thing.”

Another.

“I think it would want that no matter how badly it was damaged or destroyed.”

She kept striking it, each note ringing loud like a piano.

With an extra loud tone, the entire building vibrated, blowing away the heat hanging in the air.

A chilly wind carrying the scent of the trees answered her music by blowing out from the school.

She heard the loud sound coming from her Device – the sound of the Lives.

Her sword continued ringing even without further strikes, so she raised it overhead.

“Berger?”

“Yeah, Hazel?”

The answer came from Schwarz Löwe’s vocal device in the distant container, so she smiled.

“I think I’ll be a Tuner.”

“To assist the destruction? Tuners are sent to the battlefield to heal the destroyers.”

“That is far better than doing the destroying. …I am choosing healing over destruction. And once this war ends…I want to be a teacher and teach people that once you lose something important, you can never get it back.”

There was a pause before he responded.

“This isn’t a decision to make lightly, kindhearted fräulein.”

“I’m not. Because…” Her smile grew. “I have already seen the other side of the wall.”

…''Ever since I couldn’t write my plans for the future at school five years ago.

She finally completed her action. Tuners directly addressed the Lives of their surroundings and transformed them.

That address was known as an Up and the simplified Over Up was the most common version in Europe.

…''But I could never use anything as rushed as a simplified version.

She opened her mouth to sing the more authentic Wind Up.

“780 thousand Lives dancing before me – the motherly chatting voices awaiting the return of the temporary visitors. Can you hear the voice of my Lives?”

Her voice came out smooth and flowing.

There was no hesitation in her swinging sword.

“Ah.”

A single tone left her throat. It gradually changed pitch with a gentle rhythm. This was the sound the school was meant to carry.

The sword struck the Lives of the air and emitted a loud sound to support her own tone.

“–––––!”

Without warning, she spun around.

She did not need to check to see what had happened.

Her eyes were on Pale standing with the burning city and the floating ship behind him.

He scratched his head

“Are you okay, miss? You’re acting weird.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted with a smile.

She hopped back over the fallen tree and walked past Pale.

She approached Schwarz Löwe’s container.

“Berger,” she called, still walking and raising her empty left hand toward the night sky.

“What is it, Hazel?”

“Let’s go. I’m not afraid of anything anymore. Not this war and not the future.”

She snapped her left hand’s fingers.

Immediately, she heard the sounds of something beating at the air.

They were the sounds of wings, of flapping, of flying.

Hundreds and even thousands of those sounds combined to sound like a crashing wave as they rose into the sky.

She knew what had happened. It was exactly what she had wanted.

“First, I turned the school into white doves.”

She looked up to see a flock of doves soaring like feathers carried by the wind.

The small white shapes spread out and flew high to dance in the empty night. The red sky and black shadows could not erase their white color.

Schwarz Löwe removed the top of the container and stood up.

“Pretty flashy, Hazel.”

She responded with a smile in her voice.

“You’re just too boring, Berger.”