Editing City Series:Volume3a Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 4===

With some guidance from the General who knew the area well, Gunmal found J-Gun’s workshop right away.

It was located in the center of Yau Ma Tei, the business district for Hong Kong citizens. The simple one-story workshop was located among the barracks and cement houses.

A Wild Emblem depicting two intertwined dragons was engraved above the door.

“This the Maldrick family’s Wild Emblem, Gunmal?”

“You mean the Uroboros Rondo? Supposedly, my grandfather and the Wolf Worg – that’s the werewolf king – defeated two dragons. That’s how we became the head Buster family,” explained Gunmal while peering into the workshop. “The interior’s the same as the workshop back home. It’s all about function and looks like something out of the middle ages.”

“You mean it’s hopelessly outdated?”

The stone and cement workshop was filled with a strange scent.

It was a mixture of various metals: brass, copper, steel, lead, etc.

It was a cold scent that seemed to seep into one’s body.

But the odor of rust that joined it was due to the owner’s long absence.

If it was left alone much longer, the machinery would rust too and the entire workshop would be unusable.

But the bigger problem was a common point between the workshop and the adjoining home.

“What kinda idiot trashed the place?” muttered the General as he sat in one of the workshop’s chairs.

Gunmal looked around before nodding.

The workshop equipment was still in place, but the half-completed Devices and materials were scattered everywhere. Even the floorboards had been overturned, so whoever it was had to have been frantic.

“This must be why the Yard’s investigation took so long. Everywhere they wanted to check had already been messed with.”

“The things that Buster… The things J-Gun made were just that good.

Hearing that, Gunmal suddenly crouched down.

“…? What is it, kid?”

“Hm? When did the investigation end yesterday?”

“Last night. I think about the time you were out havin’ some fun with Akira.”

“Then someone with feathers like this was here since then. Look. And this, too.”

Gunmal showed the old man a long feather and a ring.

Based on the length of the feather, it undoubtedly belonged to a Nein Engel.

“A brown feather and a ring? That mean what I think it means? J-Gun’s de facto wife?”

“Probably. She must have stopped by to check on the place one last time. Or maybe because she’s relying on her memories.”

“If it’s the latter, she must be a good girl what with the ring and all.”

“Someone like that was wasted on my brother,” muttered Gunmal with a smile.

He put the ring on his left pinky as if testing it out.

“If he was still alive, I probably could’ve gotten him to make a Device for Akira.”

“No, one of J-Gun’s Devices would’ve been wasted on Akira.”

“Really? I think an excellent Device would be perfect for someone who enjoys Tuning so much.”

“Enjoys it, hm? You were with her last night, weren’t you? How was she?”

“She was fun.”

“That so?”

“Yeah, the European Tuners I know were…rough people who would deal with a destroyed house by letting it blow away in the wind. The dogs, cats, and birds yesterday were pretty amazing.”

Gunmal sounded like he was enjoying himself, but there was no smile in his eyes.

He actually chose his words carefully for once and spoke slowly as if checking with himself.

“She wasn’t using Lives as a toy. To me, it looked like she and the Lives were playing together.”

“That’s what she does, all right. Her parents were that kinda person too.”

“Her parents, huh?” Gunmal’s eyebrows moved slightly. “Did her parents know a lot about Death Techno?”

“Sure did.”

The General nodded and Gunmal glanced over at him.

“Is there more to that story?”

“Yeah. Why I can’t stand the sight of Huang Daquan and why I look after Akira are all a part of that story. You could call it a souvenir from Hong Kong’s many Divine Punishment Wars. Maybe I’ll tell you about it sometime.”

The General almost spat out those last words and then cleared his throat.

And suddenly…

“Gunmal, don’t you think you and Akira could make a nice team?”

“…”

Gunmal said nothing, but the General did not care.

“J-Gun said all of Europe’s threats – Glossolalians, war, and chivalry – used Tuning and Busting as their weapons. …Is this your first time seein’ a Tuner like Akira? Is this your first time seein’ some girl playin’ with the Lives instead of just usin’ Tuning as a weapon?”

“Yes. It certainly is a…”

He started cheerfully, but trailed off, scratched his head, and reworded his thoughts.

“Well… I’ve changed my view a little.”

The General smiled bitterly and nodded.

“Rin wasn’t able to do that. …Actually, was it the same with you? I hear you were kicked outta your family.”

Gunmal said nothing, but he did silently pick up a half-completed Device from the floor.

It was likely meant to be a sword, but it still looked like an oblong metal panel with the hilt just barely formed.

He sighed while staring at it.

“…”

At the same time, he gently tapped a finger on the spot meant to be the blade.

It was his left pinky, the same finger he had put the ring on.

The ring struck the sword and produced a sound. The ring was a Device.

The elegant sound bent the air and caused a change.

“…Mh?”

The General could not help but gasp.

It was not much, but the sword Gunmal held now had a bit of a blade.

“Was that Busting? Device-creation Busting?”

“I can’t do anything as high-level as Tuning. I just destroy the Live a little and have it auto-replay. That gives it a resistance to that kind of destruction, effectively strengthening it.”

A Buster created items by repeating that process thousands or even tens of thousands of times.

They could not make a mistake on even one of those repetitions.

One wrong sounding of the Live and the half-made Deivce would break. It would become dirt or smoke and it would vanish.

“Hey, old man.” Gunmal gave the sword an appraising look. “What does Akira want to do using Tuning?”

“Oh? You haven’t heard about the dragons and the Three Laws?”

“Not from her. And like Rin said, the dragons are something from Peking opera. Aren’t they several kilometers long and don’t they have an Octave in the tens of millions? That’s a hell of a lot more than some cats or dogs.”

“That’s what Akira’s tryin’ to create.”

“Why?”

“You know Hong Kong Cave, right?”

Gunmal nodded, so the General explained.

“It’s rumored in Hong Kong that the biological weapons from the Second and Fourth Divine Punishment Wars still linger in Hong Kong Cave. So Akira…” He took a breath. “She wants to Tune everythin’ in and around that ruined cave, turn it into a dragon, and return it to what it once was. People think the place is full of bacteria, so by sweepin’ it all away, she thinks the Nein Engels can start comin’ to the surface and the humans can start goin’ into the cave.”

“I see.”

“But recently, Akira’s stopped talkin’ about that kinda fantasy. It might be because people like me used to tease her about it so much.”

“There’s no helping that,” said Gunmal.

This time, the General asked a question.

“Gunmal, do you have somethin’ you want to do?”

The answer he received was simple.

“I can’t say.”

He must have felt that was not enough because he said more.

“But, well… It’s nothing as grand as Akira’s dream.”

There was some disgust in his voice and he passed the barely-made sword to the General. As soon as the older man casually accepted it, his hand sank down.

He adjusted his grip and lightly touched the blade. Once he checked the feel of the weapon, his expression quickly changed.

“This is Emblem Stone, ain’t it? That’s no mere steel. You need to use an Octave of at least a million to work on it.”

He looked to Gunmal’s left hand. His flesh-and-blood left hand.

“When you used your Device, you used the false right hand in that glove, didn’t you?”

Gunmal replied with a self-deprecating sigh, but something else cut them off.

“Hey, General, Gunmal. You two here?”

Someone stepped into the workshop.

It was Kouga.

“What is it, Kouga?”

“Rin had the Tune Emblem I saw analyzed and the results just came in, so I thought I’d pay you two a visit.”

“What? Can’t we just have another meeting at the Yard?”

“Not when this is something that could destroy Hong Kong. That Tune Emblem requires an Octave of 40,960,000 to use and it’s seriously gonna activate. And four of them at once!”

After Kouga gave his explanation in a single breath, the young and old men exchanged a glance.

“Four at once? What on earth are you-…”

Just as Gunmal was going to say “talking about”, he raised his head.

“…?”

“What is it, kid?”

He did not reply to the General’s call and turned toward the workshop entrance.

“Akira’s Live? And was that my brother’s?”

Gunmal’s gaze was fixed on the outside light entering through the rectangular workshop door.

He could of course only see a section of blue sky boxed off by four pointed corners.

The General and Kouga looked in the same direction.

The distant gray buildings of Tsim Sha Tsui were visible below the blue sky.

“What is it?” asked Kouga while tilting his head.

At the same time, a rumbling reached them.

“!?”

It sounded like distant thunder.

The workshop creaked a bit and black smoke rose into the sky above Tsim Sha Tsui.

“The hell’s that!?”

By the time the old man cried out, the two young men were on the move.

Gunmal had already pulled Nein König from below his coat.