Editing City Series:Volume5a Chapter1 (section)

===Beretta’s Write Bring: Entry in Heavy Barrel Protected Empress’s Memory Bank===

——Dammit!!

I just remembered.

Three days before in the library, the Resistance man known as Bluebeard had scouted me out and asked if I could test out the Heavy Barrel they had snuck in from outside.

I can’t believe it.

And I was told so many times during the exchange student testing that I wasn’t to get involved in anything deadly.

We aren’t like the people in this world.

I was too naïve.

And this was the result.

Just as we finished the initial preparations for this girl, the German Army had surrounded us like they were waiting for that moment. A firefight had broken out all at once. The Resistance crew I had known for only a few hours had shoved me into the Study to keep this girl alive. Since they were all spies and Resistance members, none of them had given their real names.

There was the man known as Bluebeard, Spirit who treated me like a kid, the unwomanly Calamity, Napoleon who had seemed like a little brother, and Emperor who always seemed to be looking for a fight, but they were all collapsed on the floor now.

Bluebeard’s team had probably been wiped out.

The only survivor was the anachronistic Knight Striker girl who was not even an official part of the Resistance.

I can’t believe it.

Why did I survive? They were the ones working so hard to liberate France, so they should have been the ones to survive. …So why?

I wanted to Sign something more convenient, but I decided against it.

I had to move.

“Hearing Devices: Sign.”

Oh, gunfire. They must think we still have some soldiers left.

Did that mean they weren’t going to enter the warehouse quite yet? This was my chance to get moving.

They had briefly shined their light on it, but they wouldn’t think the Heavy Barrel could move right away.

Sorry, everyone.

Farewell. I’ll bring some flowers and come see you some time.

But first I had to help them out by hiding this girl where the German Army couldn’t reach her and then make sure I survived myself.

And then I would never again Write Bring into a Heavy Barrel for no good reason.

I had to remember why I had come to this city as an exchange student and get serious about that. I had to focus on reading the letters my grandma had given me and pursue the identity of the Attesor Project that my great-grandfather Jack McWild had left behind.

I can’t believe it.

Luck simply had not been on my side recently. Mallette had grown more distant after getting a guy and that idiot Phillip had been made an honorary officer in the German Army despite being from the Chevalier de Paris family line. Why did the people living in this era insist on doing the exact same thing as in the records we had made?

<More gunfire is heard.>

Sorry, everyone.

I’m going to fully activate my body. HLF087 13-LL Protected Empress, can you hear me?

“Spirit Engine – Direct Link Complete.”

Good, good. Now my heart is active and not just my mind and senses.

I’ll run out and hide you in a handy spot. Then I’ll leave the Study.

Let’s go with that.

I stood up.

The sheet iron roof could not contain the power of the curved cylinders that moved me.

My head and the backpack I wore pushed on the roof to crash right through it.

Crash.

…Maybe I Signed too light a sound there.

But the roof had to have been blown away. The ceiling only had its framework left and my upper body stuck out into the night air. Umm, how were things outside? Was it raining? Yeah, it was.

Then I’ll write that.

It was raining.

When I stood up, my view widened considerably. To the left was an art museum’s large warehouse, identical to the one that had been hiding me. To the right was the Seine, wet with the night rain.

This was a sandbank of the Seine. It was near the city hall.

How was I supposed to escape?

While I asked myself that, I shuddered from the rain dripping down my metal skin.

Why did I have such poor focus anyway? I really only needed to Sign what was absolutely necessary, but I was getting more and more carried away with it. I was waking up.

[[Image:City_v05a_033.jpg|thumb]]

I looked forward.

I Signed.

I thought the searchlight would be shining directly on me through the rain, so I half-closed my ground-directed sight devices to bear with the brightness.

And I Pointed.

<There are two armored trucks in front of the warehouse. There is a full company of military police.>

Despite it being night and raining, they were bustling around and looking up at me.

Can I hear their voices?

“It’s a Grösse Panzer!”

Let’s just say they were shouting something like that.

You can tell it’s a Heavy Barrel just by looking at it, can’t you? If you’ve got a problem with the Heavy Barrel, then I’m heading out there to show you what’s what, you bastard.

The 1st step.

This was my first time Write Bringing into a curved cylinder style of Heavy Barrel. You could say this girl was the first one I’d used for real, so I couldn’t get the pace quite right. The legs weren’t anywhere near as heavy as I’d expected and I was surprised at how well they moved.

The 2nd step.

I’m guessing this Heavy Barrel was meant for my grandma to use. She was in Paris 55 years ago. She had been young, but after demonstrating her skill as a Knight Striker, she had become an American spy and infiltrated the city as an exchange student.

The 3rd step.

But she became one of the First Erased, so Paris continued its Format without her information included and I was thus able to Write Bring into this girl now.

The 4th step.

I checked my footing a little. I moved forward while making sure not to step on the others. I had already reached the warehouse’s entrance, so I destroyed the roof’s frame with my left fist.

Ow, ow. The hand structure is surprisingly delicate.

And…

<The armored trucks are facing this way. They have machineguns on the roof.>

That ain’t good. My current skin was a Pearl Coat with detailed emblems. It was strong against wide-range weapons, but it was weak against actual bullets. I think the armor dress was still inside its container.

Hmm.

I didn’t have time to put it on, so I had to keep on going.

The 5th step.

My legs’ curved cylinders sank low as I continued forward.

I used that to shift into a run for the 6th step.

I leaned forward and dashed.

There were about 17 yards between the warehouse and the enemy formation. Since I was 8 yards tall at the moment, that was only 3 steps. But I didn’t get careless and Pointed for just a moment.

<The armored trucks fire.>

Whoops. Now that was good timing.

I held up my right hand.

The lower arm was a large shield with a Valkyrie Strike pile bunker contained inside. The giant metal shield was hit by a ''Lanze'' that could probably destroy a light tank, but it was deflected.

I’ll write here that the sound reminded me of the glass instrument I had heard at the modern art museum.

It was actually an awfully unpleasant noise, though. Wait, there’s no point in lying if I also write that here.

Well, whatever.

The armored trucks fired more, but it was no use. No use at all. I had a shield. It would just be a repeat of last time. …And while they were doing that, I arrived!!

<nowiki><I charged into the enemy formation. An armored truck is right in front of me.></nowiki>

It was only the size of a puppy from my point of view. And if a puppy tried to bite you, it needed to be punished.

I decided to send it flying with a kick I’d learned from my former Knight Striker of a grandma. Let’s do this like I’m playing soccer.

I got it good using the curved cylinders of the ankle.

It felt nice.

This girl was pretty sturdy. Wondering how it had turned out, I Pointed.

<The armored truck was crushed as it flew away from you kick.>

OK, OK. Let’s say it caused a nice splash when it fell right into the Seine.

And that there are screams all around.

Oh, shut up. Men aren’t supposed to shriek like that. I don’t think my comrades screamed.

Then I Pointed to the side.

<The other armored truck is withdrawing.>

Don’t run, you fool.

I stuck my toes below it and cheaply flipped it over. It wasn’t even worth checking with a Point. I knew it had flipped over.

But the heavy armored truck had felt awfully light. This girl had a lot of power. She was the best and the strongest of any I’d piloted before.

<The ankle is undamaged.>

Damn, she’s sturdy. I see. I guess I should’ve expected that from a special order F-number.

I could see why she had been worth bringing even just one of them into the city. Just as Bluebeard had said, she might have been a great asset toward liberating Paris. Heavy Barrels had always been more about being a symbol and raising morale than about their pure strength. I was sure her Over Emblem was powerful too.

To put it another way, things would be bad indeed if she was taken away.

Germany and Europe as a whole had yet to develop curved cylinder tech and I didn’t want history to take that turn, even if it was just for this one loop.

Now, then. Time to run away.

Some guys were probably shooting submachineguns my way down below, but they couldn’t even scratch me at that caliber.

If you wanna fight me, get some real equipment first.

But for now, toodeloo.

The bridges weren’t blockaded and the moon wasn’t out, so it was time to escape Paris real quick!!