City Series Volume 5 -A Chapter 1

Due to an impact, the Write Bring user's thought connection has been shut down for 0.00000002 seconds.

Restarting.

Urgent.

Report on 431021-18P. We have intercepted the unidentified American-made Grösse Panzer of model HFF Unknown. By our Lernen, 15 T-Gew anti-tank rifles fired three Lanze which did medium damage to its right femur. The target has changed course and has entered the Boulogne Forest to the southwest. Its speed is mid-level. The area has cultural value, so we await instructions on whether or not to send the armored trucks in. The road at the interception point received minor damage, so we have called in a Stimmer Unit. Over.

I somehow managed to get into the forest of Boulogne Park.

The pursuing sirens were really annoying, so I really wished I had the gun barrel on the shoulder to fire back at them, but I just didn't have the proper equipment this time and I had no backup. I could never destroy the stationed German troops with one incomplete Heavy Barrel. What a pain.

But my right thigh really hurt where they had shot me. Write Bringing into a Heavy Barrel meant to fully combine with it, so any damage to it would remain with me when I released the Write Bring.

When I left the Study, I'd have a full-on bullet wound in my right thigh, G.o.ddammit. Those guys really don't know how to treat a girl's skin.

Inside a forest taller than I was, I ran down a stone path only meant for carriages.

The rain was cold and my wound hurt.

I had stopped shutting down my senses, so the cold, the exhaustion, and the pain all violated my Lives.

If I cut off my senses, I wouldn't be able to tell how bad the wound was. There was currently a bullet hole in the right thigh made of an American curved cylinder frame. I could feel the lubricant oil gradually leaking out, so it felt like I was bleeding.

The leg would stop moving after a while. I belonged to a family of Sein Frau technicians and my Knight Striker grandma had taught me everything she knows, so I could tell. If I shut down the senses here, I was done for. I wouldn't be able to tell how far the damage would grow.

I had to use my pain to consider how far I could run.

I Pointed to see if the enemy was around.

Oh, ow, ow. Was that stone there for decoration? Don't leave those things in the middle of the walkway. I don't know if it's supposed to be art or what, but I'm gonna destroy it if it's in my way. Or rather, it was right in front of me, so I destroyed it. It only took an instant. Man, that's a really dangerous ideology I've got going there. But it isn't quite as cool when I'm on the run.

I ran.

My injury, the chill of the air, the sound of the rain, the rustling of the forest. They all came together into a single sensation... Am I a poet or what? But really my thoughts just happened to flow together pretty well there.

Anyway, time to Point the upcoming intersection!!

It is an MMP055 07-LC Jagdhund. It is the German Army's average Barrel with a black coloration and large shoulders.>

That was close, but I caught it in time. A Middle Barrel showed up, but it was a cheap one. If you're gonna send it to Paris, get yourself a higher quality Barrel. Do you really think that ma.s.s produced P-number stands a chance against my special-ordered F-number?

Well, I will admit a Middle Male (MM) model has a bigger frame than a Heavy Lady (HL) model like mine.

And as I wrote that, I reached the enemy.

Your mistake was not knowing the movable range of your own head.

The Jagdhund have a heavy frame to support their own weight, so the neck vertebrae can barely turn to the side at all. So at an intersection like this, you needed to face your enemy and walk out sideways, but you didn't, did you!?

I Signed that you didn't!

If you think otherwise, then prove it by dodging this!!

I stepped forward.

I charged toward my opponent's left side.

I used the ram at the end of my right arm's Valkyrie Strike to hit their side.

And right as I made the attack, I Pointed their movements!!

The Rare Material ram easily pierced the cheap armor and the metal body wobbled.

I fired the right side of the two installed Valkyrie Strike spears.

It was a solid hit. It pierced right through with the pile bunker motion.

But that wasn't gonna cut it at all. With a slight time lag, I pushed my right arm out further, retracted the right side spear, and fired the left side one.

I decided to make extra sure.

I gathered strength in my outstretched right arm and focused on its details. The emblem engraved in the skin reacted to its own Message and the strength of the Write Bring user's will, so ether was concentrated there.

This was the original version of a Panzer Emblem. An Over Emblem caused an ether weapon to appear on a portion of the armor. That portion became an ether weapon by converting its Lives into something other than a Heavy Barrel.

My heart cried out.

I needed my will and my emotions. I controlled all of the pleasure I felt at being able to perfectly control myself through the Write Bring. And the emblem realized that power.

< p="">

The bottom end sticking back behind the elbow is more than 6 yards long. Including the spear tip, it is a spike more than 8 yards long.

The Protected Empress's Over Emblem "Spartaness" has been fully summoned to the right arm.

The glowing spear has the same functions as the original device.>

In other words, it was a pile bunker.

I fired the large spear toward the Middle Barrel in front of me.

A spear of light raced along fixed rails of the same substance and it struck the Middle Barrel while emitting a spray of light.

The Middle Barrel was blown away more by the impact than it was pierced.

< p="">

The fallen Barrel crushed the armored truck behind it.>

Okay, I checked everything with a Point, so it's time to get out of here.

I felt a slight tingling in my right arm. My will may have weakened a little. Historically, very few Knight Strikers could activate a full body Over Emblem and I could only manage it on a single part of my body. My emotions were too weak.

But I could look for ways to improve myself later. An injured girl on the run was a beautiful thing, but it became nothing more than a farce when she started beating up everyone after her.

I ran and ran.

It might be a little late to be saying it now, but I kind of hoped the soldier Write Bringed into that Middle Barrel hadn't died. He should've been fine if he had immediately canceled the Write Bring, but…well, it wasn't worth worrying about. I had to focus on escaping.

I couldn't use the river with my injured leg.

If possible, I wanted to leave this girl somewhere in the forest, get dressed in a hurry, and erase the thoughts that were being automatically recorded like this.

I just needed to find somewhere that would give me even 10 minutes of peace.

I kept running.

But the pain in my leg was definitely getting worse. It was due to that battle. If my grandma back in 1998 San Francisco had seen that pathetic battle, she'd probably kill me.

Dammit. Meanwhile, I saw a wall beyond a road cutting through the forest.

A wall? No, think carefully. There's no wall here. Signing lies isn't going to help you. Umm, oh, right. The map I studied before arriving in Paris said there was a hill here. It was a dirt hill with a bit of gra.s.s on it and a bunch of white flowers at the bottom.

…Eh?

Huh? That's not right.

I didn't learn anything about this mansion…

Wait, this isn't the time to worry about that! What should I do? Circle around the hill and escape!?

Or…?

Tonight we had a strange guest named Beretta

Correction

She is Lady Beretta

I have determined I should refer to people politely even in writing

I cannot determine how to explain why she visited us tonight

At times like that I will do as the master once told me and simply write out what happened in order

I walked out into the hallway with a light in hand to close the shutters

My Ajouter told me it was noisy outside and that something like loud footsteps were approaching

Those footsteps stopped and then it was like the sky had fallen into the mansion courtyard

The courtyard is surrounded by the mansion so it can only be accessed through the mansion

But something fell from the sky just as I made an Ajouter

It was a large machine

It was a machine just like my own body but it was far larger

Its arms were much like the largest false arm I have

Its legs were much like the largest false legs I have

I used to have a similar waist back before my growth through the Coppelia effect

My body can no longer function to my satisfaction without being closer to that of a human

This clearly had a much larger body since my body is not large enough to crush the courtyard pond

I decided to call for the master because he decides what happens in the mansion and what I do

But a person left the back of the machine before I could call for him

It was Lady Beretta

Her white and red clothing seemed to glow in the rain

She headed for the north entrance so I went that way as well

Lady Beretta opened the door and entered the mansion just as I stepped the northern hallway

She held a large bag in her hand and she collapsed on the spot

I did not know what to do so I stopped making Ajouters and propped her up

Unlike the usual food delivery men she did not name herself and she asked me to shelter her

I did not know what that meant

I picked her up and carried her to the bottom of the stairs to call for the master

When the master descended the stairs he said the wooden box he held contained tools for repairing humans

On his instructions I carried Lady Beretta to the living room and laid her down on the sofa

I made an Ajouter and found my false arms had the red soup of a juice that comes out of meat while preparing it so I felt the need to wash up

The master pulled up her skirt and began repairing her

I will now write down all of his questions and her responses while he repaired her

Are you not you going to ask who I am or if I am with the Resistance

Why would I bother asking that of a Lourd de Écrivain who was piloting an Allied Lourd de Marionnette

But I am not part of the Resistance

Are you saying a civilian was piloting that

Well it is kind of a long story

From there Lady Beretta told the long story

While she was being repaired she explained how she ended up using that machine and the master nodded after hearing her out

I will now write down what they said

Why would you tell me all that

As selfish as it is I was hoping you could make a decision for me

A decision about what

Whether you are with the Resistance or not I want you to decide what you are going to do about that girl in the courtyard and me

Why must I make that decision

Her leg is damaged and she cannot move any more but leaving her here could drag you and your maid into this whole mess

What would you do if I decided the only way to stay out of this is to hand you over to the Germans

I would fight it like h.e.l.l and if I was still caught I would apologize to the others who died

I see

If you are going to hand me over to them then just open the window and shout down to them They are wandering around at the bottom of the hill so hurry up and decide if you are going to hand me over or not

Pipe down while I try to think little girl

If you are going to hand me over to them then stop healing me because I am not going to have you staring at my leg like this if you are only going to turn me in

If you do not quiet down I really will throw you to the Germans

Oh so you are not planning to do it for the time being

Hmm I do not like something about this

The master spent a long time thinking and eventually decided to shelter Lady Beretta

He repaired her relatively quickly and he said she would not even have a scar afterwards

She seemed to still have trouble using her leg so I attached my large false arm meant for carrying things and carried her to the bath

On the way she saw the large machine collapsed in the courtyard and asked me my name

I told her my name

She told me to put her down in front of the bath and I complied

She reached out her hand and grabbed my hand

She said thank you but I did not understand why she was thanking me since I had only done what my master instructed me to

But that question was immediately erased from my mind when I made an Ajouter and saw Lady Beretta smiling for the first time

It was unlike how the master smiles and it told me why she had thanked me

Even if I was only following my orders Lady Beretta was glad that I had worked for her sake

I think that is what her smile was expressing

This might trigger the Coppelia effect so that I can smile when someone does something for me

I do not know if that is a good thing but gaining more functions is a good thing

It is about time for Lady Beretta to leave the bath

It has been 40 minutes which is 4 times as long as the master takes

She may have a lot of places to wash

The master covered the machine in the courtyard using a sheet from the storehouse

I tried to help but he ordered me to write this journal entry and to look after Lady Beretta

Lady Beretta will apparently sleep here tonight and go home early tomorrow morning

I will now bring Lady Beretta a change of my clothes

Then I have to get to the kitchen

I only have to reheat something so I can finish before she dresses

That ends this journal entry

I wrote a lot today

I doubt as much will happen tomorrow so fewer lines should suffice

I will write another entry tomorrow because that is one of my jobs

Today I'm writing with the view from a 1st floor guest room instead of the usual elevated view from my appartement. I'm feeling pretty good after getting a bath and some dinner, but my mood is not exactly great.

What am I supposed to do tomorrow?

The old man who healed me will apparently repair the Heavy Barrel. (He claims to be a Knight Striker himself.) He hasn't asked all that much about my ident.i.ty either, so who even knows.

I was only involved in the Resistance for 3 days, but it looks like I'm back to my usual life. Maybe I should think of it as a valuable experience as an exchange student. At least the changes to history will end here.

Maybe I just haven't calmed down yet. I took part in combat back in America when I helped out the city's vigilante group a few times and I've fought a triple digit number of mock battles.

I think it's really hitting me hard that people died because of me. I shouldn't have agreed to that just because I was itching to Write Bring into a Heavy Barrel again. After a.s.sembling it and doing a test run, I was supposed to officially join the Resistance, but I don't feel like doing that anymore.

My motive there wasn't exactly pure, was it? They all took it seriously enough to face death.

I bet this is all from the stress of fighting with that idiot Phillip a week ago. That idiot said he's quitting college and joining the German Army just because they've prepared an "honorary officer" position for him.

History proves he can't afford to go there. Phillip Missel uses his position as an honorary officer to act as a Resistance spy. And during the Resistance uprising on August 1, he takes part as a Knight Striker and dies. With that, the Missel family, a former Chevalier de Paris family, is destroyed. Everyone in Paris recognizes that family's Signe de Épée, but it will die out once that happens.

But there was no way he would believe me if I told him that and he was sure to ask how exactly I knew. And so we've ended up fighting every time we see each other recently.

I can't believe it. As if today wasn't bad enough, the more people I get to know, the more stressed out I get.

I almost wish I hadn't done any research into this era. Instead, I made sure to learn about the people who died as part of the Resistance, the activity of famous people, and the conflicts that crop up here and there.

The railroad in Champagne is bombed tomorrow afternoon and the Normandy landings begin on June 6. Plus, Mallette gets caught in the Format and Phillip dies on August 1. On August 3, the German Army invades Bourgogne, angers a black dragon, and gets trampled along with an entire village.

From outside the closed-off city, France was swallowed by the Rondeau in August of '44, so the European battlefront had to avoid France. The Allies were forced to invade Germany from the south and north to finally drive Germany to surrender.

That was all in the past.

As long as my involvement today wasn't found out and everything around me is fine, I can return to my normal life tomorrow. I need to seriously focus on why I came to France.

I have two reasons for being here.

The first is pretty much the same reason I became a Knight Striker: The Attesor Project. That mysterious French Heavy Barrel development project was written of in a Death Techno compilation book sold before the war. I wanted to see if it actually existed. After all, some doc.u.ments concerning it turned up in my great-grandfather's things back home.

My great-grandfather, Jack McWild, was originally an American technical officer and he had visited France as an adviser. That was when the Attesor Project began.

My grandma had always been proud of him and I think it must have spread to me. The next thing I knew, I was a weird girl who was interested almost exclusively in Sein Fraus and Heavy Barrels. As my curiosity grew, I found myself dying to investigate the Attesor Project and to find out what my ancestor had done.

The other reason was my grandma.

Her parents, Jack McWild and Rose Francisca, had broken up for a few reasons. Jack McWild had taken my grandma with him when he moved to San Francisco where he built the Sein Frau maintenance factory where the family still lives, but in '39, his corpse was found floating in the Seine here in Paris.

And in '43, the Allies recruited my grandma for her skill as a Knight Striker and she infiltrated Paris as an exchange student. But while she was sent in to support the Resistance as a Knight Striker, I think she really went to investigate my great-grandfather's death.

In the end, she escaped to America just a few days before the Wort Bombe detonated. I'm sure a lot happened, but from what I've heard, the failure of the Paris Resistance's uprising on August 1 hit her pretty hard. Some people consider her a traitor and a deserter, but I don't mind.

I mean, it's thanks to that that she happened to miss the Format and became one of the First Erased. If not for that, my father and I would never have been born.

But my grandma did have one regret. She knew that Jack McWild and Rose Francisca broke up due to a misunderstanding between them and he apparently went back to Paris to make up with her.

After Jack McWild went to Paris, my grandma found a letter in the study of our home. It was addressed to Rose Francisca, but only with a name; there was no actual address given. He had likely thought she would understand once they found each other, decided not to mail it, and forgot about it without ever writing in the address.

I came to Paris with that letter.

The exchange students like me are supposed to investigate France and help create a backup before France fully closes itself off. In other words, the world is going to abandon France without liberating it.

However, it can't be liberated.

The world has reached the year 1998, but France is still connected to the years of 1943 and 1944. If France is liberated, it will be restored within 1944. My world of '98 has been a world without France ever since '44, so that restoration would create a 54 year paradox that would destroy the world of '98.

I don't have the guts to remake my "world without France" into a new "world with France".

I want to investigate the Heavy Barrel development project known as the Attesor Project and I want to get Jack McWild's letter to Rose Francisca to accomplish what my grandma failed to do.

My grandma has thought about this for a long time and that's why she named me Beretta.

Beretta is her name too and according to her:

"That way your great-grandmother will recognize you right away."

There's a lot I want to say about that, but she hasn't used her real name since leaving Paris and instead goes by Sword Lady, her Urban Name as a Knight Striker. She must have her reasons.

I need to give all of this more thought.

I've Signed what I need to do, so I guess I'll read my grandma's letter when I get back to my room.

There's so much I have to do.

But I am little worried about that Heavy Barrel and…yes, about those two in this mansion. They live in a mansion here, but there is no information at all about them in '98.

I wonder why. Well, I'll leave all the thinking for tomorrow.

Today's Incidents:

1: Old Blue Eyes's Negotiations

Old Blue Eyes had his son and daughter-in-law taken to Germany as hostages and his grandson has been taken into the German Army as an honorary officer. To clear up any fears that he was colluding with the Germans, he escaped Paris on his own, negotiated with the national a.s.sembly members outside, and returned today.

He was negotiating for the sovereignty of the Free France faction of the Paris Resistance group I lead, to rid us of our obligation to work with the communist faction, and to give us the discretionary power to act freely.

It was a major negotiation, but he somehow managed it. We can now act at our own discretion when necessary while also awaiting instructions from the national a.s.sembly. That old man did well. It certainly helps to have the former Chevalier de Paris family as your second-in-command.

I think I will give him some time off starting tomorrow, but I'm worried that stubborn old man won't accept it.

2: Slaughter of Bluebeard's Team

Blue seems to be a popular color today.

Bluebeard's material acquisition and management team was slaughtered. The Allies must have messed something up because they certainly bungled smuggling in the female Lourd de Marionnette being sent in for support. According to Bluebeard:

"I found a Lourd de Écrivain girl with a nice anti-German spirit, so I'll have her check over the Lourd de Marionnette and try to bring her on as a Lourd de Écrivain when I see a chance."

But ironically, it was that Lourd de Écrivain girl who reported Bluebeard's death to me.

That said, the Lourd de Écrivain that Bluebeard found is definitely a good one.

But I will not recruit her. She's just that type of girl. She doesn't have the most important aspect of being a Lourd de Écrivain. She clearly enjoys performing the Recréa with a Lourd de Marionnette.

Yes, she's just like I was 25 years ago. And we can't have that.

Plus, that Lourd de Écrivain girl has far too many strange symbols to her.

3: The Prophecy

Everything that happened today was written of in a letter that Rose Francisca sent yesterday under a pseudonym for some reason. I thought it was all nonsense at first, but I was gradually forced to believe it. I ended up explaining my thoughts to Rosetta at dinner, but she did not seem to understand. That would be the normal response, though.

Who would believe that Paris is actually stuck in a loop?

Tomorrow, I will write letters for the families of Bluebeard and his team members. Only I can do this since Resistance members rarely if ever meet each other. I really shouldn't have let them make me their leader. All I end up doing is manage addresses, approve strategies, give orders, and look after the dead.

Today at 10:00, my 72nd mechanization surgery was completed at Berlin's general hospital. Now the German Army's Panzer Ritter Project has advanced to the next stage.

At 12:44, I began healing from the surgery. I was freed from my restraints and allowed to wake up. At 17:07, my body's senses recovered.

At 19:21, my Grösse Panzer unit, the 1st Grösse Panzer Platoon of the 352nd Infantry Division, sent their 1st aide to inquire about the progress of my surgeries. After some quick questioning, he left.

At 20:00, I went for a quick walk inside the hospital. With the strengthened optical nerves provided by this surgery, I can now see through the darkness out the window. My body is now nearly 70% mechanical, so it is predicted I will have a reaction speed approximately 117 times faster than a normal person when combined with a Grösse Panzer. The mechanization of my body that began shortly after the previous Great War has successfully increased my reaction speed. I should probably celebrate that this surgery has allowed an old soldier of 58 to continue fighting, but the surgeries have erased my emotions and memories, so I have no memories of anyone to celebrate with.

Currently, something the 1st aide mentioned is sticking with me.

While our German Army has spent many long years experimenting on my body to create a true Panzer Ritter, France has long had its own project to create the strongest Panzer.

Theirs is named the Attesor Project. The Attesor Project's existence has long been rumored and, if I recall correctly, the German-born traitor and current adventurer named M. Schrier wrote about it in the 7th volume of his children's book series known as the Ober Geheimnis Compilation.

There are no known witnesses and very little material evidence, so it was thought to be no more than childish rumors and guesses born in Bourgogne. But it seems that they have discovered there is more to it.

Our army is investigating the existence of that strongest Panzer development project. I feel no surprise our doubt about this. As a Panzer Kavalier, I simply leave it in the back of my mind as I go to sleep.