Editing City Series:Volume4b Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 3===

'''7:29 PM

Aoi and Ikemaru stood on the twentieth floor hallway of the Osaka Hilton.

They stood before their room and they were repelling the enemies who had entered the hotel.

The battle had a light start when Ikemaru turned the floor into an ocean while the Osaka Chancellor’s Officers members approached.

As soon as the carpet-patterned ocean appeared everywhere except where Ikemaru and Aoi stood, Aoi used her Shinkage Style to copy Taeko’s lightning attack and used that on the ocean.

That instantly defeated all of those who had sunk into or were sinking into the ocean.

It was a nice combination.

The two of them stood on the isolated island of floor located in front of their room.

Beyond the end of the hall, they could hear quite a few people talking and moving around. It was most likely a second wave from the Osaka Chancellor’s Officers.

Aoi spoke as she looked that way.

“It’s ironic. Some of our enemy probably use the Modified Purple Electricity Style.”

“Please do not let your guard down. The next group will soon-…”

“Don’t be so strict. …I’m trying to gather my thoughts.”

Aoi closed her eyes before saying more.

“Takahiro…did you know this?”

“Know what?”

“The Dance Combat style born from the Kage Style split between an Osaka and an Edo Style that fought for supremacy.”

“…”

“But the eastern style fell into decline after the war. Then…was it twenty years ago? The elder of the Aoi family unscientifically claimed the reason behind the decline was in our blood and snatched a girl away from the main western family.”

And…

“Now, the sole survivor of the eastern style…is kicking their asses like this. It’s kind of ironic, really.”

When she said that, Aoi felt someone gently embrace her from behind and heard a whisper in her ear.

“…Aoi-san.”

“Hm? What?”

“You did not come here to fight.”

Hearing that, she opened her eyes and smiled a little.

“Yes,” she began. “That’s right. Once this battle is over, let’s go look for those cherry blossoms. If we can find those, then a Shinkage Style created to fight may not be so worthless after all.”

“Can you make that decision in the place your parents first met?”

“Yes. And if we do find that place…I have a request, Takahiro.”

“What is it?”

“Hold me tight…and don’t let go.”

She giggled and gently elbowed confused Ikemaru in the chest.

“The battle isn’t over yet, but don’t push yourself too hard. I don’t want you collapsing like you did when you created Seigi’s Dog God.”

“I believe I have grown since then.”

“It’s only been five years, right? Your height’s the only thing that’s grown.”

“Aren’t you judging me rather harshly?”

“But you have the exact same look on your face as back then.”

“The same look on my face?”

“Whatever you might say, you always get this hint of a smile when you know you can use your power to its fullest.”

She sighed and added, “That’s the opposite of me.” She then looked to Takahiro’s hands as he hugged her.

When he noticed her gaze, he spoke.

“Do not worry. I cannot speak to the Lives while holding you in my arms.”

“And you don’t need to worry about me. …Why do you think I was training in the Shinkage Style?”

“Wasn’t it because your mother asked you to?”

“Do you really think a girl of five would train under that man for nothing more than that?”

Aoi smiled bitterly.

Then the cellphone in Ikemaru’s pocket rang.

“Excuse me.”

With that, he let go of her.

Aoi leaned back against the door as he pulled out the phone and held it to his ear.

“It’s from Nakamura. It’s about my cousin.”

“In other words, it’s for me, huh?”

She gave a troubled look as she took the phone.

“It’s Aoi.”

“Hey. Just won. On my way to New Osaka. Any word on Takada?”

“Could you maybe speak in complete sentences?”

“I’m in a hurry. I was having some fun and got hit by a Word Particle Cannon, so I burned my hoodie and now I’m freezing.”

“Burned it? So I take it you stole the Flame High?”

“I put a lot of work into it.”

“That was all thanks to Takahiro’s charm, wasn’t it? You didn’t lose the other one, did you?”

“No. I’m about to use the charm to steal a bullet train with Nagoya’s Chancellor. …So where’s Takada?”

“Seigi, well… Y’know that boy we picked up earlier? She left with him.”

“I see… Oh, crap! She’s catching up, so I’ve gotta run.”

“She?”

“Koto’s Chancellor! I haven’t re-listened to the Flame High yet, so this is bad timing. …Later!”

Just before he hung up, Aoi heard Nagoya’s Chancellor shouting.

The shout apparently accompanied some kind of attack. Probably aimed at their pursuer.

“I see.” Aoi nodded and returned the phone to Ikemaru. “Sounds like everything’s more or less going as planned. Iba must be doing well outside.”

As soon as she said that, a change came over the ocean.

Starting from the far end of the hallway, the slightly wavy carpet turned white.

It was ice.

The ocean was being frozen.

“It would seem they called in a holy spell user. …They are cleverer than I gave them credit for.”

“What should I do?” asked Aoi. “Fire Kusanagi?”

Ikemaru suddenly embraced her again.

“…Eh?”

Before she could ask anything, he opened their room’s door with one hand, placed her inside, and closed the door.

He shut only her inside the room.

She blankly stood there for a few seconds, but then she realized what had happened and turned back toward the door.

“H-hey! Takahiro! What do you think you’re doing!?”

She received an answer from beyond the door.

“I shall crush Osaka’s Chancellor’s Officers here. But there is a danger of you being caught in the middle…so please stay in the room.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“To use my power. I shall use my ''kotodama'' power to its fullest.”

His answer was punctuated by gunfire.

Aoi heard the almost pleasant bursting sounds through the door.

“T-Takahiro!”

“Is something the matter?”

“You idiot! Why are you getting yourself shot!?”

“Calm down. I have not been hit ye-…”

He paused for a second.

“I have been grazed once. My apologies.”

“How can you be so calm!? Open this door. I’ll support you!”

“Become a wall.”

The door became a wall.

“Stop that! Takahiro!”

“Please. I am trying to focus.”

“Focus…? What are you trying to do!?”

“One of the hotel’s main supports runs through the side wall here and I can only speak to it from the hallway.”

Before he could finish speaking, Aoi kicked at the wall that had been a door.

“What are you planning to do with the entire building’s ''kotodama''!? If you just want to defeat them, there are better battlefields!”

“But those would not function as a diversion… And those would not allow me to understand them.”

“…Eh?”

“Don’t you find them to be baffling? Why can they not do what we do? And why can we not do what they do?”

Aoi could hear a slight smile in Takahiro’s question, so she asked a question of her own.

“They? Do you mean Seigi and that boy?”

“ ‘Everyone but us’ may be the better answer. I have never before seen anyone who can act while filled with such great indecision.”

“Well, Seigi would say we’re the ones who’ve cut off our own indecision. …And open up already. I can hear all that gunfire!”

“You said you were jealous of Takada, didn’t you?”

She stopped moving when she heard his question.

And he said more.

“I had already met you when I created the Dog God from Takada. That is why I could not allow her indecision to contin-…”

“Takahiro!!”

“…Yes?”

“She was the one who decided to close off her path to being a Tuner or Buster! That wasn’t because you gave her the Dog God. Don’t be so conceited.”

His silence was filled by gunfire.

Aoi ignored the sounds of bullets as she spoke.

“The fact that you aren’t honest, that you’re strict on Hisahide, and that you’re blunt with Seigi are two sides of the same coin, aren’t they? Just like with the Shinkage Style’s raison d’etre, the one side is strong because the other side is also strong.”

“…”

“Well? Am I wrong?”

“Making assumptions about others’ thoughts is a bad habit of the O blood type.”

“The blood type horoscope doesn’t matter, so just open this already.”

“Unfortunately, that would not fulfill the prophecy.”

“The prophecy?”

“The prophecy of the king’s birth. The red flower should bloom toward the sky, not underground.”

A moment later, a giant glowing blade stabbed through the door before Aoi’s eyes.

It was an anti-demon round.

That special sort of bullet had been developed in Europe.

The blade was created by solidifying the ether’s Lives as light and it rolled across the room.

She could see Ikemaru’s face in the narrow gap created in the door.

He had lost his glasses and his face and clothes were both stained with blood.

That was the result of the gunfire.

Aoi honestly gasped.

“…”

But after a moment’s hesitation, she finally smiled toward him.

“I see… So Seigi wasn’t the only one you were jealous of.”

“…”

“You’re really cool, Takahiro.”

“I was waiting for you to say that.” He smiled a little. “Whether or not you find the cherry blossoms, whether or not he becomes the king, and whether or not the east and west reunite are all an issue of possibility.”

“And so we too need to step inside that ring of possibility?”

“At the very least, that boy increased his possibility by jumping out that window. That should have left him with zero possibility, but he transformed it into an uncertain future.”

“Then do you know why he jumped out that window?”

“Yes.”

“In that case,” she said. “You’ve found someone to pursue, just like that boy and Hisahide have.”

“My apologies. This does not mean I have any complaints about the current state of affairs.”

“It’s fine, if it’ll help everyone out.”

“Everyone?”

“You’re a businessman, aren’t you? Then you need to make everyone happy.”

When he heard that, Takahiro’s smile grew bitter.

At the same time…

“Please leave this building. I will now turn it into a flower.”

Hijiri obediently began to run.

She turned her back on Takahiro and did not hesitate to run for the window.

As she did, leaf veins appeared on the walls and floor.

Just before she jumped out the window, she looked back.

“Takahiro! I’ll see you again below those cherry trees! Don’t give up and continue searching!”

A bitter smile came to her lips as she spoke.

“Honestly. You deny it, but you really are a competitive boy!!”

Her voice was soon a part of the night sky.