Editing HEAVY OBJECT:EX Chapter 8 (section)

===Part 3===

The river should have carried them to jungle village Skuld had gone to, but the current was not the same everywhere. Bumps in the ground, trees in the way, and small piles of garbage tangled with cloth caused the current to split apart in places.

The soldiers who had been together entering the forest were separated at some point.

The first one to arrive at the village was Quenser.

He climbed onto one of the wooden bridges between houses.

“This is Quenser. I’ve arrived at the village. We can’t afford to wait, so I’m going in now. I just hope Skuld was swept along a different branch of the river and taken right into a crocodile’s den.”

“Understood. But don’t pursue her if you don’t have to. The Object battle is over and the other excess mouths to feed are on their way there. You just have to make sure no civilians are killed. Find a way to stall her until reinforcements arrive.”

“I never thought we’d be working together with the Faith Organization.”

“This is just like in Oceania. No one wants to work with them any longer than we have to. And I can’t believe they’re acting like our territory doesn’t matter now that the battle is over. They’re pretending to be angelic volunteers after everything they did, so I’m going to fine them for all they’re worth once this is over!”

Quenser listened to Frolaytia on the radio as he stabbed an electric fuse into the Hand Axe he had molded in his hand. He attached the clay-like bombs to the wooden bridges, house walls, and tree trunks sticking up from the flooded river.

(Alpha, beta, charlie, delta…)

He did not have a real plan. He had no idea what would come in handy, so he was attaching it everywhere he could.

With the rain pouring and blowing, no one must have wanted to go outside. As far as he could see, the village was entirely silent. That made sense, but an unpleasant feeling rose in his chest. He was worried Skuld had already gone nuts here and opening any door would reveal a colorful world that stank of rust.

Was Skuld here?

And if so, where would she start her attack?

A normal serial killer could be profiled based on the conditions in which they acted, but that did not work with Skuld. She loved adlibbing everything. She would find herself in an unexpected situation and then choose whatever option would lead to the most death. Simply put, her decision making was passive, so a lot of it depended on fate’s dice roll.

So…

“Someone took her in.”

It would start with an adlib that Skuld could not have predicted.

While spreading the Hand Axe around and investigating the wooden bridges that linked everything together like a spider web, he found something odd. Footprints would vanish almost immediately in the pouring rain, but some traces would remain.

He saw a long hair with a familiar shade of blonde caught between two boards on one bridge.

Assuming Skuld had climbed out here, he looked around. Most of the small house’s doors and windows were boarded up for the storm, but one place had left its front door defenselessly exposed.

“…”

Quenser exhaled and slowly approached.

The building was structured somewhat differently from the others. It was still only one story, but it looked like two of the others houses linked together. And the one out front had a sign on it. The name there suggested it was a shop for leisure items.

Quenser set up some bombs out of habit and then walked toward that front entrance.

The door was made of wood, so he could peek inside.

Should he press his ear to it, should he surreptitiously turn the knob, should he pound on the door to warn the civilians inside, or should he attach some Hand Axe and blow it up?

He was unsure what to do.

And then he heard the creaking of a floor panel.

After a momentary delay, the door was blown to smithereens from the inside.