With those thoughts in the corner of my mind, one night, Aria and I were arguing over whether peach buns or eel buns tasted better. The chime of the cell phone in my pocket alerted me to an incoming text message. The signal quality in this apartment wasn’t the best, and sometimes it would take some time after a message was sent before my cell phone would chime, or at other times a backlog of messages would come all at once. I received a shock as I looked at the display. There were forty-nine unread text messages and eighteen voice recorded messages. And they were all from Shirayuki. The first one read, “Kin-chan, is it true that you’re living with a girl?” It was followed by “I just got back from Mount Osore, and I heard a rumor that a girl named Aria H. Kanzaki had seduced you.” “Why aren’t you answering?” “I’m coming over!” I watched as Shirayuki’s messages gradually evolved into something horrifying over a period of thirty minutes.
“A-Aria, m-m-m-m-m-m-m-make a run for it!”
“W-What are you talking about? Why are you trembling all of a sudden? Y-You’re creeping me out, Kinji…”
“T-T-The ‘armed shrine maiden’ is…ah! Oh no…she’s here…!”
Footsteps that sounded like they belonged to a raging bull in the middle of a charge were resonating in the hallway of the apartment complex. They were coming closer! A piercing metallic sound rang out, and like a bad joke, the door to the apartment was cut open. Standing there firmly with her feet set apart and suited for battle with a metal-plated headband and a sash that held up the sleeves of her shrine maiden garb was…
“Shirayuki!”
Shirayuki was wheezing as if she had made a mad dash all the way over here, and she wore an angry expression under her squarely cut bangs.
“So…you were here…after all…Aria…H….Kanzaki!” said Shirayuki trying to catch her breath between each word.
“W-Wait! Calm down, Shirayuki!”
“It’s not your fault, Kin-chan! You were tricked! I know it!”
I still wasn’t sure what triggered it, but every now and then, Shirayuki would turn into a demon-like berserker just like this. And at times like these, for some reason, the people around me—usually girls—wind up taking the brunt of her attacks.
“You thieving hussy! A-A-Atone for the sin of seducing and defiling Kin-chan with your death!!”
Shirayuki lifted her Japanese sword, which gave off a bluish glow, above her head. Not even Aria could help but back away, and she was even forgetting to draw her pistols.
“S-Shirayuki, stop! I haven’t been defiled in any way!”
“Kin-chan, step aside! I can’t kill her unless you get out the way!”
“K-Kinji! Do something about her! W-What’s going on here?!”
“What’s going on?” That’s what I want to know!
To be continued!!!
Afterward
There were many people who helped me with the writing of this book. Firstly, there’s Misaka, the chief editor and Sasao, the editor. I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart for how they read my manuscript over and over and gave me valuable comments each time. There’s also Kobuichi who drew the illustrations of Aria and everyone else. Thank you so much for drawing them all with more charm than even I had envisioned. When I saw cute little Aria on the cover, I looked up and screamed, “This is it!” I also want to thank Itsuki Yuma, Watanabe Iori, and Morita Kisetsu for thinking up the titles of the goth-lolita games that were in the story. Thanks to Kei Shigema, Akira, Kazushi, Hajime Taguchi, Renichi Nanai, Shinji Hoshi, and Matsutomo for the valuable advice they gave me. Thanks to Takeda Esquire for teaching me the reading of the Chinese character, ‘kyouwai’ (immensely obscene). Thanks to Mr. A, who taught me about guns. And thanks to my family. It’s thanks to all of you that I was really able to enjoy writing this book. I sincerely hope all the readers will share that sense of enjoyment.
May Aria meet as many readers as possible and become a happy girl.
Author's Note
Hi there. My name is Kobuichi and I had the pleasure of drawing the illustrations. I was able to draw many cute characters for this book and had a lot fun! Aria, you’re so cute!
I tried my hand at drawing ‘peach bun Aria’, but ‘goth-lolita Aria’ might have been good too. I think Aria would look cute in goth-lolita clothes! I’d love to line her up with Shirayuki and Riko in shrine maiden garbs.
August 2008
Chuugaku Akamatsu
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Aria the Scarlet Ammo (novel), Volume 1 Page 17
