City Series:Volume8b Chapter14
Chapter 14: Course Select VR[edit]
Welcome back!
Straight from DT Prison’s cathedral, it’s time for “Shout! It’s the Oracle Message Board!” with Racter Nosrup Txt, member of the 13 Demigods and American with a bad Kansai accent!
It’s happening! Suedomsa applied a x1000 boost inside the shield just before 3!
For those of us outside the shield, there’s only 2 seconds left.
Which means anything I write will be too late! You’ll have to make do with what I wrote up ahead of time!
Here you go: So there’s this thing called a Questron in the castle basement that’s used for a godtact experiment.
The Great God Lives extracted from Babel should be overwriting Yuo as their vessel right about now.
Listen up.
2000 years ago, we Demigods chose Yuo as the vessel for the 2nd Godtact Experiment, but that ended in failure. Just as the Great God Lives began to overwrite her, Suedomsa came running and shot her to death.
He did it because he was her father.
And now a young man is rushing to Yuo just like Suedomsa did back then.
According to his arrival data, his emblem is called Blackbelt and it’s depicted by a spear.
So our topic this time can be “spears”.
Will he succeed where Suedomsa failed and arrive before Yuo becomes the great god?
Anyway, I wish him luck.
But when they came to the Son of God and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
(John 19:33-34)
07/07/2000 DT 02:59 PM x1k (-00:01)
Help Text[edit]
Due to the boost setting change for a portion of DT, the DT OS has put certain restrictions in place.
Please wait until the system stabilizes.
Aoe’s Continued Sight Mode: In DT Castle[edit]
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Time passed and the countdown overhead reached 20.
Aoe swung his fist.
He had to shatter the wall and rescue Yuo just like Akalabeth wanted.
If he failed to shatter the wall, it was all over.
If that happened, it would mean he did not believe in his power.
And if Yuo refused to leave, it was also all over.
If that happened, it would mean he had failed to understand her anxiety and fear.
He needed power and a knowledge of her.
Once he had both, he would finally reach the starting line for the strongest power.
He suppressed the impatience telling him to hurry as he threw his left fist and used that to throw his right fist.
Impact.
He saw the defense shield cry out, endure, and glow.
He could see Yuo past that glow. He wasn’t looking at anything else anymore.
“Yuo.”
He punched the wall separating her from him. To shatter it, to destroy it, to break it open.
He had once eliminated her anxiety and fear.
<So I can do it again.>
With that thought, he swung his fist.
The impact rang loud.
Light scattered and sound burst.
Yuo was wrinkling her brow on the other side of the wall. Worriedly. She held her breath with the anxious look of someone wondering what was going to happen.
She could hear the impacts. He could tell that. But she was still in Board Mode. Her expressions were enough to tell. The worried look on her face before had been far too perfect.
So he threw another punch. To tell her an Over Reload couldn’t properly appreciate the sound it made.
His flying fists produced noises from the right and the left.
He rapidly spun side to side, his shoulders shaking and his feet braced. His breath escaped amid the noisy barrage.
“Ha!”
The remaining time was down to 19 seconds.
Just then, he saw a window open above Yuo’s head.
<Why?>
He answered her question with three simple words.
“I don’t know.”
He threw his left fist as soon as the right one landed.
He opened his mouth and sucked in a breath. Sweat dripped down his cheek and then flew into the air from his vigorous movement.
He ignored that as he launched his right fist again. And his left too. He wasn’t stopping.
He put his hips behind the actions and made sure to extend his knees too. The bottoms of his feet slid back and forth from the full power strikes.
The amount of scattering sweat grew and the remaining time dropped to 18 seconds.
He saw Yuo open her mouth just a bit.
<Why do this? Who are you?>
<Mr…Aoe?>
Seeing that impersonal way of addressing him made him shout back on reflex.
“Shut up!”
He saw her shoulders shake and he slammed his right fist into the wall.
“If I could explain it in words, I would have done so already!”
He slammed his left fist into it too.
17 seconds.
“Damn!”
He threw his left. The impact traveled back up his arm and rattled his neck.
But the wall would not break.
He looked at his fists. Those fists could not break down this wall. He understood that, grimaced, and he threw another punch.
An unpleasant sound came from his left fist when it landed.
16 seconds.
He groaned and frowned a bit. But he kept his eyes dead ahead with all emotion gone from his face.
Because he had seen the change to Yuo’s expression when his fist produced a breaking sound.
Her brow unwrinkled and her eyes widened in slight surprise.
Her eyes were unfocused because she had yet to regain her sight.
But those unfocused eyes were still looking at him.
Her lips trembled as she moved them and spoke through her window.
<Stop this! You don’t have to do this!>
She lowered her head.
<Please stop.>
She forcefully shook her lowered head.
<I don’t know who you are beyond a name.>
Those words briefly stopped his fists. He pulled back his broken fist and sucked in a deep breath.
15 seconds.
She repeated herself as he stopped moving.
<Please stop.>
He started to lower his gaze when he saw the window.
<Should I stop?>
With that thought, he stopped his moving gaze. He saw Yuo’s expression below the floating window.
Tears were spilling from the weakly closed eyes on her hanging head.
The tears floated in midair thanks to the shield’s inertial control.
But that wasn’t all. He also saw strength in her gaze.
<Aoe’s Over Zoom>
14 seconds remaining.
He realized her expression had changed after the unusual sound from his left fist.
She would tremble and her expression would change whenever he breathed or made any kind of sound at all.
Board Mode couldn’t do that.
Over Reloading couldn’t provide those real-time changes.
He nearly smiled as he moved his lips to confirm it.
“Did you switch to Sight Mode?”
He realized she had taken an interest in him.
“If so…”
<I have no reason to give up!>
13 seconds.
Yuo’s window opened.
<What do you mean?>
He did not respond. He threw his right fist like that was all the answer she needed.
<Aoe’s Over Zoom>
12 seconds remaining.
Aoe held his breath and thought while throwing his fists. And he vocalized his thoughts.
“Damn.”
He pulled back his right fist.
“The killing power?”
He threw the fist forward.
“The power of a Plus dropout?”
He felt the impact and readied his left fist.
11 seconds remaining.
“I was so arrogant for someone whose fists can’t even break this puny wall.”
It would not break.
The defense shield was powered by the energy that Babel extracted from the ley lines. That meant it had near unlimited power and with no upper limit.
But Aoe faced the shield and tensed his eyebrows.
“Can my fist…”
He slammed his fist against it. With great speed and no hesitation.
“…break a divine barrier!?”
He punched, increasing his speed and making the movements more compact.
Each punch carried the force he normally reserved for a finishing blow.
10 seconds.
The shield shined and shook before his eyes. The barrage was turning the entire thing into a glow panel. But the light was greatly distorted where he was concentrating the blows.
He stared at that distortion and through the wall.
Yuo was there.
<Aoe’s Over Zoom>
He noticed her hands were moving.
She had lost her sense of touch, so this had to be an automatic action born of instinct. She wasn’t trying to move – her conditional reflexes were kicking in.
9 seconds remaining.
Her wandering arms were now held up by her right shoulder.
Her fingers moved as if trying to tangle something around them.
Her hair was down at the moment, so there was no ponytail there.
But Aoe knew what the action meant.
She always did that when she was worried.
8 seconds remaining.
<Has she always had that habit?>
She was in Sight Mode without her sense of vision, so she could not see his window.
So she did not answer his question.
Her face shook with worry. The set of her eyebrows, eyes, and mouth said she didn’t know what to do. He had seen this expression on her long ago, when he had first met her.
<That means she was worried when I first ran into her behind the school.>
He realized that had been their starting line.
At the time, he had told her to come with him and she had done so.
<Was I already trying to eliminate her anxiety back then?>
He gasped and looked up as he realized he knew the source of her anxiety. It was something all Minus people had.
<Anxiety about the Plus world.>
7 seconds remaining.
She was clearly worried right now.
<Is that because I am asking her to leave the city?>
When he had first met her, she had not given up, but she had been anxious.
So she had answered his call and eliminated her anxiety within the Plus world.
Her anxious behavior told Aoe this Yuo was the same.
<Does that mean no one from the Plus world has ever called out to this Yuo?>
It was the Plus world’s job to eliminate Minus anxieties.
Aoe scattered sweat as he slowly opened his mouth and formed a question there.
“Hey, Yuo? Are you afraid of the Plus world outside the city?”
She jumped in response.
6 seconds remaining.
He immediately pulled back his left fist and asked something else.
He chose his words carefully because this was what mattered most.
“Has anyone ever asked you to join them in the Plus world?”
She trembled and lifted her head slightly.
Her fingers squirmed by her right shoulder as she gave an answer.
<…>
The window was blank.
But she did shake her head.
Without her sense of touch, the movement was exaggerated and her body shook within the floaty lack of inertia.
But Aoe smiled slightly when he saw her no.
“Ha!”
But the smile didn’t stop there
5 seconds remaining.
The joyful twisting of his cheeks grew greater and greater.
It grew to a full, toothy smile.
“Is that so?”
He clenched his left fist. Blood dripped from the back of his hand, wetting his middle and index fingers.
But he managed to form a fist.
“Then I know the answer.”
“Yuo.”
He slammed his right fist in at the same time.
The impact rang loud.
“You can make this choice!”
“I don’t care if you’ve forgotten doing it before.”
“You just have to do it again! And if it will let you choose…”
“I will say the same thing again.”
“To make sure the resignation won’t beat you!”
4 seconds remaining.
He spat out a breath and sent his left fist in. And he raised his voice.
“Come to me! Come to the sound of my Plus fists!”
<Aoe’s Over Zoom>
“You can find your rightful place as a Minus person here!”
His voice rose to a roar and Yuo raised her tearful face.
She opened her voiceless mouth.
<B-but! What is a Minus person supposed to do after leaving here!?>
She shouted her will on the window.
<It didn’t work for my dad or the others! What can I possibly do if I leave!?>
He knew the answer, so he raised his right fist and shouted it.
“What can you do!? That one’s easy!”
He released his will along with his clenched right fist.
“You sing the song of the forward march!”
<…!?>
3 seconds.
Aoe’s Text made Yuo tremble and he found the result of his punching.
<Aoe’s Over Zoom>
At just one point on the wall, the light distortions created by his punching intersected. That distortion should not have existed if the defense shield were constructed properly.
He wondered what that meant and Akalabeth explained from behind him.
“That is the sign of our hypocrisy. It gave her the chance to choose to leave even if we used her as the vessel.”
Aoe smiled at that. And clenched his right fist.
“Come to me!”
He called to Yuo with his Download Text.
He looked to Yuo’s face as he swung his right fist with all his might.
“Maybe you fear the outside world. Maybe it makes you anxious.”
When she heard that, she frowned and the hands by her right shoulder stopped moving.
She shook her head just a bit.
But her unfocused eyes were looking right at him.
2 seconds remaining.
Her eyebrows drooped and she opened her mouth like she wanted to say something.
Her shoulders rose and fell, her mouth opened, and she failed to speak several times.
She wanted to say something, but she was also waiting for him to say something.
Seeing that, he spoke to her.
He produced a Text using the words he had once spoken to her.
“I…”
Her trembling stopped when she heard it.
“I will put all your worries to rest for the rest of your life!”
His fist and its spear emblem crashed audibly into the wall.
“Yuo!”
The voice of his will struck the hypocrisy point and Yuo nodded with her tearful face distorted by the barrier.
<––––!>
It was more of a reflex than part of her will.
With only 1 second remaining, her hands left the position that indicated anxiety.
She only had the sounds to go on, but she moved her hands.
There was only one thing she sought now: his fist.
As soon as her slender hands touched the inside of the wall, the clock reached 0.
<Aoe’s Sight Mode has updated>
All DT Residents’ Board Mode: Everywhere[edit]
<DT’s Foundational OS has forced an Over Reload for all DT residents>
In south DT, the people watching the castle from the park realize everything has come to a conclusion in a mere two seconds.
A window opens in front of them all.
<Warning: The Great God Lives overwrite installation target is missing>
<Warning: Shutting off all circuits to prevent a Live Hazard>
<Warning: The initially extracted Great God Lives remaining in the Questron have grown unstable>
<Warning: The Questron’s interior is unstable: 76% probability the Questron will collapse>
<Warning: Everyone within the Questron facility must evacuate immediately>
Then light races across the sky. The bundle of light curving from the top of Babel to the castle now race straight up into the sky.
Cracking lightning sounds race every which way through the sky.
But everyone hears a loud sound other than the lightning scorching the air.
It is a terribly impatient chiming.
Every single clock inside the x1000 boosted castle and amusement park was going on.
The arrival of the Day of the Oracle at 3 o’clock is greeted with fanfares and music.
<The general Sight Mode has ended>
Aoe’s Continued Sight Mode: In DT Castle[edit]
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Aoe’s attack shattered the glowing wall.
The light shattered, several windows immediately opened, and nothing more remained between him and Yuo.
Within the blizzard of shattered light, Yuo’s missing sense of touch kept her from standing on her own.
The light shards still had physical form, so they lacerated her in a few places, producing blood.
But she still managed to take one step through the light before collapsing.
Aoe silently caught her in his arms.
An alarm rang especially loud in the ceremony room.
A moment later, the metal spear emblem vanished from both his arms.
The spear symbol drawn in a see-through black rapidly grew and glowed, but it vanished a moment after that.
Yuo opened her mouth and her unfocused eyes in his arms.
<Ah!>
Tears began to spill from her eyes.
<Ahh!>
The tears soaked into the cuts from the shield, drawing red lines down her cheeks.
The only words she spoke were the weeping of her will. Her trembling came from an emotion unconnected to the sense of touch.
He held her around the hip and let her head rest against his chest.
“It’s okay.”
He nodded and repeated himself.
“It’s okay.”
She nodded in his arms.
Still crying, she rubbed her forehead against his chest and nodded. Tears fell, her long ears were squashed and bent, and her head was shaking.
<I’m sorry.>
She sucked in a rough breath.
<I even asked for this myself!>
“Which is why you gave in for a time!” he shouted. “But not even you yourself can force you to give up anymore!”
His voice was joined by a sound from the surface portion of the castle.
A great chorus drowned out even the alarm.
Outside the x1000 boosted defense shield, joyful music indicated the arrival of the Day of the Oracle.
<The time prophesied by the great god has arrived, but Yuo remains with us.>
He held Yuo in his arms and turned around.
Suedomsa stood atop the diskette program beyond the defense shield Akalabeth had erected.
Aoe stared straight at gray-haired Suedomsa.
“Now the past has come to an end! Yuo does not fear the Plus and will not give up!”
Then he looked to Algo standing behind Suedomsa.
He held Yuo in his left arm and raised his right hand.
His extended index finger pointed at Algo.
He opened his mouth and spoke.
“No longer will I doubt my power! Because I have reclaimed it and reached my goal!”
Algo’s face twisted into a slight smile.
And he spoke.
“Then what will you do now?”
“Defeat you!” roared Aoe, stepping forward and scattering the sweat from his brow. “Listen. It’s time to take another look at your so-called strongest power, my weakness, and my resignation! And I will make you accept your defeat! I swear it!!”
Algo nodded.
And he looked away, turning ever so slightly to view Suedomsa atop the diskette emblem.
“Master Suedomsa.”
“Yes, I heard.” Suedomsa shut his eyes. “You are about to be very busy, Algo.”
That reminded Aoe of something. Suedomsa was scheduled to succumb to his Word’s Warn at 3 PM. He gasped and looked up, hearing Suedomsa’s voice.
“Akalabeth. Is this your answer? Cooperation between the Plus and the Minus?”
His question was addressed to Akalabeth, but Aoe could tell the man’s voice and gaze were directed at him.
“So you say the Plus and the Minus can do more than destroy each other? Just like the Minus Elites tried to save the outside world or like my Plus brother tried to teach Algo the strongest power?”
“Yes, anyone who belongs squarely on one side will seek out someone on the other side.”
Aoe saw a slight smile on Suedomsa’s lips as he looked his way.
“But the answer for you is that Yuo had not given up. The great god has left it to us to make our own decisions. What more do you need?”
Akalabeth had grown pale as she looked to Suedomsa and then smiled toward Aoe.
She met Aoe’s eyes and nodded.
“You must ask. You now possess the strongest Plus power and have Minus Yuo with you, so you must ask how you can understand and surpass the Minus anxieties and fears.”
Aoe nodded back with Yuo in his arms, but then he heard someone else.
It was Suedomsa.
“I see. Akalabeth, so you too think their battle has only just begun?” He lowered his head a little and raised his right hand. “The past has recalled its truth and reached a conclusion, so now a new, modern battle is beginning!”
<Aoe’s Over Zoom>
Suedomsa held two program trigons in his right hand.
He swung that hand backwards, throwing the trigons.
The yellow tetrahedrons flew toward the man standing behind him.
That was Algo.
Algo easily caught the two flung trigons despite the shaking of the floor.
“Take these. These are the programs you need for the next – the modern – godtact experiment.”
After that, a tremor ran through Suedomsa’s body.
He was coughing.
A deep rumble came from the ceiling and the floor shook violently.
“…!”
The ear-splitting noise made Aoe frown.
He saw the hole in the ceiling he had used being blocked up.
The thick steel panel covering it was the lift that should have been up on the roof.
Their escape route was gone.
<Aoe’s Sight Mode has ended>
Aoe’s Board Mode: In DT Castle[edit]
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Suedomsa has fallen to his knees and looks your way.
He wipes the blood from his mouth with a hand.
Suedomsa: “Myst.”
Myst: “Yes, master. Ask me anything.”
Suedomsa: “Then, Myst – no, Quartet. I want you all to do everything you can to stop them here.”
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Myst gulps and lowers her head.
Suedomsa looks your way.
Suedomsa: “I apologize, but I am a Minus Elite through and through. I may have failed to activate the great god here, but I remain a Minus person. Your fight has inherited what we began.”
Aoe: “Mh.”
Suedomsa: “…”
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Suedomsa shuts his eyes.
Yuo raises her head.
Suedomsa: <Yuo.>
Yuo: <What is it, dad?>
Suedomsa: “After the Son of God died on the cross, the king ordered a soldier to see if he was dead. The soldier used a metal spear.”
Yuo: “And when the spear pierced his side, blood and water spilled out.”
Suedomsa: <The soldier learned that the Son of God still lived.>
Suedomsa: “Is the blood flowing from the beating of your heart and the water from your shed tears, Yuo?”
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Suedomsa stands up.
Suedomsa: “Then this is how it was meant to continue.”
Suedomsa: “Can you hear me, Elites of both sides!?”
Suedomsa: <As the traitorous apostle, I will betray you all once more in the end.>
Suedomsa: “I will not meet the pitiful death you all expect of me.”
Suedomsa: “Because every part of me is gathered here.”
Suedomsa: “Alternative, Yuo. I want you to continue on from here!”
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Suedomsa’s body is burning away.
The Mouse on his shoulder burns away with him.
Archon Suedomsa Txt’s death has been confirmed.
Archon Suedomsa Txt cannot be formatted as he died from Words Warn.
Yuo: <Dad!!>
Yuo: <Dad…>
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
The shaking of the floor causes the white ash to float up and spread out across the diskette program.
Algo, Alternative, and Daikatana leave through the bulkheads.
Akalabeth falls to her knees.
Akalabeth: “Hee hee. You really do know how to surprise me.”
Aoe: “Mh? Hey.”
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Akalabeth tilts to the right.
<Warning: Akalabeth is falling. Please support her immediately>
Aoe: “Hey!”
Akalabeth: “This is fine. I have finally seen the answer to a 2000-year-old question.”
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Akalabeth collapses onto the carpet.
Akalabeth: “This is the answer.”
Akalabeth: “It may not be the best answer, but it is the only true answer.”
<Aoe’s Board Mode has ended>
Aoe’s Sight Mode: In DT Castle[edit]
<Aoe’s Over Reload>
Upon switching modes, Aoe was linked with his sight.
He saw someone in a reddish-purple dress collapsed on her side.
The color red had spread out on the metal floor around Akalabeth.
That was blood.
Aoe gulped hard and the defense shield erected by Akalabeth vanished.
At the same time, he heard a voice.
“Master Algo has left now. What do you plan to do about it?”
The voice was high-pitched but firm.
<Aoe’s Over Zoom>
An artist in a white dress stood at the center of the ceremony room.
That was Myst.
She held a giant virtual pen in both arms.
It formed a horizontal line in front of her.
“I’m sure you plan to begin this new fight, but just as I was commanded, I will keep you here. Even if that Minus task is something given to me, I will do it…”
She inhaled and released her Text.
“As DT’s greatest artist.”
<Aoe’s Sight Mode has updated>
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