“I’m releasing you … from your duty as a bodyguard! Kin-chan …! Get out of here! Keep living …!”
“Shirayuki …! Dammit …! This is all happening … because of me …!”
“Kin … chan … it’s not your fault …!”
With those being her last words, Shirayuki shut her eyes tightly … and disappeared beneath the water’s surface.
“Shirayukiiiiii!!”
Shirayuki’s black hair wavered limply in the water. She stopped looking at me and just looked downwards as if she had already resigned herself to this fate.
“Shirayuki …!”
Are you trying to just die ... and make it easier for me escape? You released me from my responsibility as a bodyguard ... and defended me to the very end, saying it wasn’t my fault. …
“The hell it isn’t …!” I yelled, punching the wall.
I was at fault. It was entirely my fault that this was happening. I ignored warnings, didn’t prepare myself to face the enemy, and made the situation worse when I did take action.
Of course, it’s my fault!!
Now that things have come to this … I finally made up my mind.
Shirayuki, you always obediently did exactly what I said, didn’t you. Thinking back, most of what I ordered you to do stem from my own selfishness. So now it’s my turn to do everything that you asked of me. You told me three things. First off, you just told me to “keep living.” You got it. I’m going to stay alive all right. I’m not dying in a place like this. I’ll keep living with everything I’ve got, and I’ll crush Durandal and any other of Aria’s enemies. And when I’m done, I’m gonna live the most ordinary and carefree life possible. And as for the second thing you told me, I heard you loud and clear on that night when I was to start guarding you on my own. You said, “Protect me.” At that moment, you, too, were unaware of the enemy’s presence. That might be why you were able to say it so easily. But I did reply. I said, “Sure.” I’m going to protect you. I have a final trump card to play. Though I’ve kept it a secret and have been running away for it so long. I even hid it from you, a friend of mine ever since we were kids. I have this one card I saved until the very end—power I have locked away inside my body. More than half of what I did during that hijacking incident wasn’t of my own will. I silenced Aria so our enemy wouldn’t find us. That was the priority. If I hadn't used it, I would have died. That was the situation I was in. But now … my reason for using this power would have nothing to do with responsibility. Aria said I didn’t have to fight. Shirayuki herself rescinded the order I was given to guard her. That’s why I was no longer responsible. If I wanted to run, I was free to do so. Even if I would wind up regretting it for the rest of my life, I wasn’t obliged to use this power. But for the first time since my brother died, I’m going to use this power willingly. I’m going to use the trump card I have hidden deep within me.
I’m going to use hysteria mode!
Shirayuki, “I’m releasing you from your duty as a bodyguard,” you say?
“To hell with that!!” I screamed with my mouth wide open, and before closing it, took a deep, deep breath. Until I went red in the face. Until my lungs were on the verge of bursting. Until I became even closer to my limit. I sucked in all the air I possibly could … and dove underwater.
There, Shirayuki stood almost listlessly as I grasped her shoulders, and her large eyes grew even larger as she shook her head from side to side. She blinked her eyes rhythmically, sending me a message in code.
‘Don’t die Don’t make it up to me in that way’
Apparently she thought I was planning on dying with her. It was just like her to entertain such a thought.
That’s not it. That’s not it, Shirayuki. The third thing you told me. There was one more thing you told me to do, wasn’t there? Yesterday, after the fireworks, you said, “Kiss me.” I’m sorry it’s going to be under these circumstances though. I’ll do . . . what you asked of me!
I signaled a single word to Shirayuki with my blinking eyelids.
‘Breathe’
As soon as I communicated the message, I embraced Shirayuki …
“ …!”
…and place my mouth against hers. Shirayuki’s lips—and it was a crime to make this comparison, really—were … softer than Aria’s. The breath I held inside was being drawn out of me, and a just a little of Shirayuki’s passed my way as well. It had the sweet scent of peaches.
… Ahh. I can feel it. I can feel Shirayuki taking her next breath …
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
… as well as my increasing heart rate.
Starting at my lips, boiling blood began circulating throughout my body … and converged at my very core. I never thought I would have been doing something like this with my childhood friend. That sentiment mingled with furious excitement and lit a fire within me. It was as if all the time I had spent with Shirayuki since we were children had come together and transformed itself into a source of heat that burned the center of my being with enough intensity to be painful …!
Ahh. … It’s happening. I’m entering … hysteria mode …!
From the tips of Shirayuki’s lips, bubbles rose to the surface as she exhaled. She was breathing. I kept our lips attached and after letting her take two more breaths … released my mouth from hers. Reaching out my hand to the drum lock wedged against her upper abdomen, I gathered my concentration and inserted the bump key once again. When the water rises to the ceiling, we’ll lose our means of getting air. The way I see it, that’ll happen in three minutes. No, it should already be less than that. In normal mode, I require an average of twelve minutes to open an anti-break-in CP–C lock via lock bumping. But in my current state, the slightest sensations picked up by my fingertips allowed me to understand the inner structure of the lock as if I could see right through it. Click.
In a mere ten seconds, I opened the first of the locks that even Aria had struggled with. The second lock didn’t take any longer, either. I went up for air, and while sharing it with Shirayuki again after coming back down, I took the bump key out the butei handbook she had tucked away between her chest and her priestess garbs.
Click!
The giant drum lock that had restrained Shirayuki made a loud sound as it opened, and the heavy chains also noisily slid down the pipe. Shirayuki and I rose to the surface, and our faces emerged from the water at the same time as we gasped for air.
Great. We made it in time.
Our heads were nearly bumping against the ceiling, but the warehouse wasn’t totally submerged yet.
“Kin-chan!” Shirayuki swam over to where I was and embraced me.
“…Shirayuki, you just said that you released me from my duty as a bodyguard, didn’t you?”
Ah. You idiot. I’m an idiot. Don’t talk in that low, cool voice. And stop with the piercing look in your eyes. It’s so annoying.
“Y . . . Yes,” Shirayuki answered.
I gently caressed Shirayuki’s face from ear to cheek with my wet hands while using my thumb to brush aside a tuft of her hair that was clinging to her skin. “Whether I’m your bodyguard or not isn’t relevant. I’m going to protect you. I want to protect you because it is you … no matter what. Shirayuki … I want you to accept these scorching feelings of mine,” I said in a low yet clear voice resembling a whisper.
There was a bit of surprise mixed in with expression on her face that showed she couldn’t have been more deeply moved, and she nodded once. When she lifted her head, it finally made contact with the ceiling.
Ah. Now isn’t the time to be giving her assurance with my sweet words.
It was a bad habit of mine that emerged during hysteria mode. Right now, we had to move to the floor above us as quickly as possible.
“B-But Kin-chan, our opponent is a Matsugi. I’ll fight too,” Shirayuki said, lowering her nicely shaped eyebrows in determination.
“You’re a brave girl,” I commented with a small, wry smile. I didn’t want to expose Sh
irayuki to any more danger, but I had to respect the will of a lady. “I’m hoping that won’t be necessary, but … alright then. If things start looking grim, give us a hand. Aria and I will take the vanguard. Shirayuki, you stay in the rear and set up an ambush.”
Now I had all my cards out in the open. All that remained to do was to meet up with Aria and launch a fierce attack. Then we would arrest Durandal, who had yet to even show herself. Our adversary was a strategist—and an esper at that. She wasn’t the type of opponent who could be beaten by an average butei. But the buteis assembled here were by no means average. We had Aria the Quadra, myself in hysteria mode, and Shirayuki as support. With these three cards on the table, we can definitely fight on par with Durandal. We should be more than a match for her in fact. Those were the thoughts I was mulling over as I opened the hatch leading to the upper level. The water was now practically touching the ceiling. I opened the three layered door, and to prevent being attacked the second I stuck my head out, I used my knife as a mirror to check the surrounding area above me. When I came to the conclusion that there was no immediate danger, I wondered if there might have been some sort of devise attached to the door because another dull sound echoed throughout Junction.
“… Tsk!” I clicked my tongue. The water level began to rise even faster. It reached the ceiling in no time, and a surge of water threw us out onto the floor above us.
“Aaah!” cried Shirayuki, arriving on the sixth basement floor and subsequently being swept away by a rush of water on the linoleum floor.
“Shirayuki, be careful! Get your sub-edge (support blade) ready!”
“R…Right!”
I wanted very much to go after Shirayuki, who drifted off into the shadows, but right now I had to stop this flow of water. If this floor were to become submerged too, we’d have to go through the same ordeal all over again. Still keeping a firm grip on the hatch built into the floor, I attempted to close it against the extreme water pressure.
“Urrrrrrgh!” I groaned, using all the strength I could muster to push down on the door … and barely managed to close it.
“Phew.”
Look’s like that put a stop to the water. If I were the normal me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything about this, either.
“… Shirayuki,” I called out, but no reply came back. “…”
It could be … that she had found our enemy and was keeping quiet so as not to give herself away. Shirayuki was currently supposed to be laying in ambush, after all. I took a look around me and realized that this level, the floor of which was now waterlogged, had a large number of humungous computers lined up together like walls. This room housed a HPC server—or what’s commonly known as a super-computer. There were access lamps blinking all over the place. There weren’t, however, any signboards that read “Danger” or “Caution.” I pulled out my Beretta and after removing the bullets, blew the water out of the chamber. A little soak in water wouldn’t be enough to render modern-day guns useless. It was too bad for the guys in Informa and Connect, but I had no qualms with using my gun on this floor.
This room, with its large-scale computers lined up like portable partitions, was just like a maze. Unlike the shelves of explosives, there was no danger of having projectiles thrown at us from between small open spaces, but there was no way of telling where or who another person could be. Muffling the sound of my footsteps, I ran down a corridor surrounded by walls of integrated circuits and silicon. I held my gun in the position we learned in our indoor-combat class and moved around like a Special Forces commando. I made my turns cautiously when I came to corners of the walls of computers, and at the third one …
“Kinji.”
… I came across Aria. Apparently, she had heard our voices earlier and made her way back here from the elevator towards the back of the room.
“You’re okay. That’s great . …”
I made eye contact with her and nodding slightly, adjusted the direction of my gun to exclude Aria from its bullets’ trajectory. Aria, who seemed to have felt guilty for leaving the warehouse without us, looked relieved to see me unharmed. But when she came by my side, Aria glared up at me with angry eyes.
“Why didn’t you escape from here? I told you that you didn’t have to fight, didn’t I?” Aria reproved me in a low voice for disobeying her orders.
“I’m afraid I’m not rational enough to leave an adorable person such as yourself here while I make a run for it.”
“…Wh-What’s that supposed to mean?”
I, also relieved to see Aria bearing her cuspid and returning to her usual self, whispered back to her.
“When I thought that you were probably longing to see me, I couldn't contain myself and my body just starting acting on its own.”
“W-W-W-What are you talking about at a time like this?”
I put on a smile rivaling that of Shiranui’s, and Aria displayed her usual habit of becoming red in the face. The process of going from a fair complexion to bright red took precisely half a second. Congratulations on setting a new record, Aria.
“But more importantly, Aria, where’s Durandal?”
“. . . I haven’t found her yet. It doesn’t look like that coward plans to fight with me.”
“I see.”
“But she’s somewhere in this room for sure. All the locks on the doors leading to the upper level have been destroyed, and the elevator doors have been sealed off with iron plating. It was all done on the side accessible from this floor,” explained Aria, regaining her wits. Sure enough, it didn’t look like Aria had entered battle with Durandal yet. “Say, I heard her voice earlier, so you succeeded in rescuing Shirayuki, right? She wasn’t hurt or anything?”
It would seem Aria was fairly worried about us after all; she asked with the utmost sincerity.
Such a strong sense of responsibility. What a good little girl.
“No. But I lost sight of her in here. If we’re taken out one by one while we’re scattered about, it’ll be just the way our enemy planned. First, we need to reunite with Shirayuki—”
Just then I heard a faint coughing noise. It was a barely audible sound that my ears only vaguely picked up even in hysteria mode, and Aria, with the sensitive hearing of a wild animal, spun around in its direction.
“It’s Shirayuki. She’s over there.”
“Let’s go. But we don’t know where Durandal might strike from. Aria, let me be your shield,” I said as I walked past Aria and started leading the way down the corridor. When I walked past her, I saw Aria’s crimson eyes grow ever slightly larger in my peripheral vision. It would seem that she realized a certain something about me.
We found Shirayuki right away. She was towards the back in the single open area of this HPC server room—the elevator hall. She had wandered into the corridor adjacent to the elevator hall and was slumped down in the shadow of computer nearly three meters high. She might have swallowed some of the seawater that swept her away because she was sitting on the floor in a position of a washed-up mermaid and coughing with both hands over her mouth.
“… *cough cough* … D-Did you find Durandal ...?”
“We haven’t seen her. Shirayuki, don’t stray too far from us,” said Aria, bending down to rub her on the back. Shirayuki nodded in compliance.
“Kin-chan . …” Shirayuki was half in tears as she looked up at me with a gaze that suggested she was completely depending on me. Her wet priestess garbs were adhering to every inch of her body, revealing her sexy bodyline that was uncharacteristic of a high school student. When I was in hysteria mode, I could call to mind everything about the shape, color, quality, and trimmings of a girl’s outfit as if I had a photo right in front of me. However … Shirayuki currently seemed to be wearing thin body-armor, not that black bra.
“Were your lips okay after that?”
“Yeah, they’re fine.”
I thought I would ask, and Shirayuki nodded her head.
“They were bleeding, weren’t they?
Lemme have a look.”
“No need. It wasn’t that big of a deal. I just have a cut on the inside of my mouth.”
…I knew it!
“Aria, get back!” I yelled and opened fire on Shirayuki.
As for Shirayuki … she seemed to have anticipated my actions.
“!”
In her dripping wet garbs she knocked away my arm, causing the bullet to go astray. The bullet ricocheted off the floor and hit the enormous computer nearby, creating sparks.
“Kinji?!” Aria cried out in surprise, and Shirayuki ran alongside her at blinding speed.
Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! I instantly switched to full auto and my Beretta lit up with muzzle flashes. But the bullets it fired only found their way into the hem of Shirayuki’s hakama. She actually made use of the force that knocked back her hakama and scrambled behind Aria. Once there, she took up a katana that was hidden underneath the computer rack. She flung its vermillion-lacquered scabbard into the elevator hall, and the blade she had drawn from it was the katana that Shirayuki always kept with her. I was no longer able to fire at Shirayuki. She was using Aria as a shield. Aria was still unable to comprehend the situation, but she seemed to have sensed the danger with her animal-like instincts.
“…?!”
She reflexively pulled out her pistols and tried to turn and face Shirayuki.
“Ungh?!
Shirayuki tightly wrapped her left arm around Aria’s neck from behind. The sharp edge of the katana in her right hand was dangerously angled against the back of Aria’s neck under her ear. It was lined up with her carotid artery—the vital artery that could be reach by cutting inward by just a few centimeters, causing a person to bleed to death in a matter of seconds.
“Shira . . . yuki! What’s going on?! What’s gotten into you?!” Aria hollered.
Aria the Scarlet Ammo (novel), Volume 2 Page 13
