Editing City Series:Volume4b Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 1===

'''7:17 PM

The night sky and the scattered winter stars were visible straight ahead.

Only that great expanse could be seen and the ground was nowhere to be found.

This was a view only available to someone lying parallel to the night sky.

Shoui was the one enjoying that view.

He felt déjà vu as his thoughts drifted in an almost sleepy sort of way.

“I’ve seen an expanse of stars like this before.”

For some reason, the thought was vocalized even though he did not open his mouth.

Before he could wonder why, he realized where the déjà vu came from.

It was from two years before.

After he had been defeated by Nagoya Vice Chancellor Yamashita Gihei’s sword strike, the night sky had filled his vision when he had come to.

But back then, he had seen snow rather than stars.

That scene was indelibly burned into his memory.

–Shoui – Mind Tech – Auto-Take – Release Memory – Hit.

The memory was replayed as a video.

It was a video of the past.

It was snowing and he was indeed collapsed and staring up toward heaven.

…''I have to fight.

''If I don’t, I can’t protect Yuuki,'' he thought even though he had trouble moving.

That was likely paralysis from the Lightning High Rhythm’s additional attack.

But he could not accomplish anything if he did not move.

–Shoui – Mind Tech – Take – Strengthen Mind – Hit.

“I have to fight!”

He muttered those words as he got up.

When he lowered his vision from the heavens to human height, he saw Yuuki.

The girl he had needed to fight and protect had her back to him.

Almost as if she were protecting him.

He could sense no strength in her.

“Yuuki…?”

He did not even need to use a Sight Tech to notice a certain fact.

A male right arm lay on the ground in front of her after being severed at the shoulder.

“Yuuki…!”

When he shouted, Yuuki looked back.

She had lost her glasses and the right half of her face was dyed red with blood.

A sword had stabbed her in the right eye.

The blood had yet to stop.

But her left eye looked to Shoui.

As he stood up, his gaze audibly clashed with hers.

She was tall, so her gaze was situated higher than his.

As if to accept their age difference, she narrowed her one eye in a slight smile.

Then she opened her mouth and spoke one simple word.

“Sorry.”

That was all.

She closed her eye and collapsed backwards.

He ran over and supported her.

As he did, great pain ran through his forehead.

As soon as that phantom pain struck his head like a hammer, the replayed memory was cut off by his own scream from two years ago and an external voice from the present.

“Yuuki!?” / “Shoui-san!”

He awoke in an instant.

His eyes came into focus on the starry sky before them.

A girl looked down at him with that winter sky in the background.

It was Takada Seigi, the girl with the Urban Name of Fast Reader.

“Please pull yourself together! You need to wake up!”

Shoui obediently sat up while placing a hand on his forehead.

[[Image:City_v04b_065.jpg|thumb]]

He could see Osaka’s cityscape, but the neon and streetlights were flying backwards with surprising speed.

–Shoui – Mind/Sight Tech – Auto-Take – Confirm Situation – Hit.

As he felt a vibration reaching him through his butt, he realized he was sitting in the back of a dump truck.

The scene around him was moving because he was being carried down the road.

The city continued to move around him and he could hear the city’s siren.

Takada kneeled next to him with the Dog God.

His mind was still muddy, so he asked for some confirmation.

“We survived jumping down from that building?”

“You don’t remember? You kicked off a pole, kicked off a traffic light, and then rolled on top of here.”

Once she mentioned it, he did remember planning to do that.

“I see.” He nodded. “How long was I out?”

“Quite a while. While you were, some weird lightning struck over there. It was a completely straight line.”

She pointed to some clouds in the southern sky.

That was the only point in the night sky with any clouds and they were too small and oddly shaped to be natural.

They were rainclouds created by loud noise, ionization, or extreme atmospheric convection.

“A Word Particle Cannon, huh?”

He clenched his teeth, but stopped almost immediately and slowly stood up instead.

“They said Tokyo’s Chancellor and his group are escaping to Nagoya, didn’t they?”

The Fourth Alarm’s siren continued to sound even after Suzaku Ver. 40’s Word Particle Cannon had fired.

The battle was not over yet.

“Takada-san, this dump truck will probably stop at that light up ahead, so you need to climb off and get to safety. I’ll keep going to New Osaka Station.”

“Eh? Why New Osaka-…?”

“The rest of Takada’s question was cut off by Shoui’s answer.

“Because Yuuki will be pursuing Tokyo’s Chancellor.”

“Why do you seek her?”

Shoui could not answer that question.

He had far too many reasons to pursue her.

He felt like he could sum it all up, found he could not, and ultimately said nothing.

The Dog God was unable to articulate his self-questioning, so Takada asked another question.

“Do you not know?”

He was unable to answer that and neither could the Dog God on his shoulder.

Takada and her Dog God smiled bitterly.

“Then I’m going to New Osaka Station with you. I’m supposed to go to Nagoya too.”

She pulled a ticket from within her stole.

Shoui noticed that it was a ticket for a designated seat on a bullet train.

He sighed.

“We can’t have a teenage boy and girl going on a trip without their parents’ permission.”

“What are you talking about? Despite how Hisahide-san acts, he won’t do anything to me. Unlike you, Shoui-san.”

“Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-you’re a pretty rude girl, you know that!?”

“Why are you getting so flustered? Honestly…”

She went on to smile mischievously and held the ring on her right hand to her mouth.

“But that’s not the only reason I’m going with you.”

“Eh?”

“I also want to see you, Shoui-san.”

He thought on that for a bit and scratched his head.

“You ‘also’ want to see me, hm? I can’t believe this.”

“Hisahide-san is the main reason I am going there. …It’s the same for you, isn’t it?”

Unable to answer that, Shoui asked a question of his own.

“Why do you want to see me?”

“As I said before, there is possibility in indecisive people.”

“Possibility…”

“They have a great number of options. …I ended my indecision and closed off those other paths, but it is possible I could have escaped the fear I had of my own power. It is possible could have become a Tuner or Buster instead of a Fast Reader.” She spoke with the city of Osaka moving by in the background. “I gave up on indecision.”

“But you can’t just never make a decision.”

“Yes, that’s true. The time will come when a decision must be made.” Takada looked up at Shoui. “But the stronger one’s indecision, the stronger their resolve when that time comes. And the greater one’s resolve, the more they will wander in indecision.”

“In that case…”

“Your prophecy fits into Hisahide-san’s Words, so your indecision and the decision it leads to will certainly bring great possibility to us…no, to the people around you and me.”

She took a breath.

“And that possibility can bring everyone happiness…or bring them unhappiness.”

“I’m shocked.” Shoui smiled bitterly. “That’s why you’re staying with me? In order to point my possibility in as good a direction as possible?”

“Yes. And as I said, you have what I gave up on.”

“This is the first time anyone has been this deluded about what I’m capable of.”

“Liar. Someone else has cared for you since long before this.”

“I hope you don’t mean Old Lady Senga. I’ve already decided anything over 28 is too old.”

Shoui felt a slight shaking below him as he gave that serious comment.

The dump truck was coming to a stop.

The city of Osaka slowed down around them and Takada asked him a question as he looked out toward New Osaka Station.

“Please tell me one thing. When did you start thinking about her?”

“When was it for you?”

He returned the question as if bargaining with her.

She looked a bit hesitant, but after two breaths, her usual expression returned.

“At the summer festival two years ago. He said he needed my power and everything else about me. …Now, what about you?”

When she returned the question to him again, he sighed.

“Do I have to tell you?”

“I told you.”

“Girls are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want, aren’t they?”

“There is no point in letting shame hold you back on vacation… Now, will you answer me?”

“It’s the continuation of the image you saw from my thoughts before. During the Kinki Riot, my house collapsed and I was…”

His thoughts must have been reaching her because a cloud fell over Takada’s expression.

At the same time, the dump truck stopped.

The lurch caught Takada by surprise.

“Ah.”

The Dog God cried out for her and she started to topple over.

–Shoui – Gym Tech – Take – Pick Up – Hit.

He supported her and picked her up.

“I’m going to get off here. It would be dangerous to cause a scene on here.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Eh?”

“I thought it was a happier story. I’m sorry.”

As she apologized, he smiled a little and responded.

“You sound just like Yuuki from two years ago.”

“…Two years ago?”

“When we first met wasn’t like that. After Yuuki worked with Old Lady Senga to pull me out into the light, she rejoiced that I was alive.”

“Do you not want to apologize to her?”

–Shoui – Mind Tech – Take – Control Emotions – Hit.

“I promised…to protect her.”

With that, he turned his back on Takada.

He could see the city of Osaka.

He jumped down in that direction and spoke too quietly for Takada to hear.

“I promised to fight…and protect her.”

His voice jumped down to the road and his body followed.