Editing City Series:Volume4b Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 4===

'''Same Time

Everyone in Osaka Prefectural #2’s schoolyard came to a halt when around a dozen students in lab coats ran out from Ixolde’s emergency passageway at one corner of the schoolyard.

These were the students who had been controlling Ixolde.

If they had fled, then Ixolde was done for.

Everyone in the schoolyard came to a stop and looked at the lab coat group.

A moment later, destruction arrived at the center of the schoolyard.

“!”

The first sound was an intensely solid one similar to splitting stone.

As if in response, Ixolde’s equipment delivery hatch in the center of the schoolyard erupted up toward the heavens.

The deafening noise was a simple yet gigantic physical blow.

With the same force as the noise, the two panels of the fifty meter hatch flew through the night sky like sheets of plastic thrown into the wind for fun.

After reaching about three hundred meters up, the two steel panels began to fall.

The fifty meter panels fell from a height of three hundred meters.

It was like a giant’s guillotine.

No one could react to the massive cutting.

Two sounds of breaking minerals followed.

The first was one of the steel panels slicing Prefectural #2’s western school building in two and stabbing into the ground.

The second was the other steel panel crushing the tall concrete wall surrounding the schoolyard.

No one said a word.

But not even one of them was looking where the steel panels had fallen.

They were all focused on the large hole opened in the schoolyard.

Fire burned in the depths of that hole and a warm light flickered like a wave as it left the hole.

It was a gentle dance of light.

And that night-illuminating dance revealed two silhouettes facing each other on the edge of the hole.

One wore a student combat coat and held a sword downwards.

The other was unarmed.

A deep sound of destruction continued playing in the background as the unarmed one laughed.

“Nice. I love things like this.”

The one with the sword, Nanba Souichirou, asked a question that rang through the darkness.

“What is it you want?”

“To defeat you.”

“Do you like fighting?”

“No, that’s not it. I like to win. I like to stand at the top.”

Nakamura sounded cheerful as he pulled something from his pocket.

It was a headphone.

He placed it in his ear.

“So Saki’s information was correct,” said Souichirou. “You’re going to use the Flame High.”

“Yeah, that’s right. My sister did too. The thing about Harmonists is we can’t use normal Rhythms or Wind Rhythms. We just can’t seem to get the hang of it. …But that inexperience with sound can come in handy.”

“It allows you to grow accustomed to the Flame High’s ridiculous speed and Octave?”

“Correct! Without any unnecessary knowledge, we can accept even the most powerful weapons!”

He began a cheerful recitation.

''A red flower blooms in the darkness

''An empty party begins in strength

''Human memories dance within nothingness

:''A soldier saves the king

:''A woman becomes the queen

:''A sage reminisces

::''Run down another’s path without looking

::''Choose your own path and sprint

::''The true path lies in the future

It took a beat before his full power could activate.

But it did so in short order.

Fire.

Flames.

A conflagration.

The red blaze resembled all of those things yet was none of them.

The flickering flames resided at the ends of his arms.

This was the Flame High’s fire.

The fire gave a scorching roar.

It cried out as it bent its body atop his hands like living creatures.

He held it up in front of his eyes.

“Thanks for making my sister’s Rhythm. I had no other memento of her.”

He took a fighting pose.

He gently held his burning fists at his waist and pulled one leg back a little.

It was an upright stance focused on kicks.

He carved a speedy Tempo into the knee of his forward leg.

“Now, it’s time I showed you what I can do with the Flame High.”

He spoke the words that would begin this decisive battle.

“Welcome to the White Noise!”