Third Bullet Caged Bird

Being a bodyguard is one of the most popular jobs for a butei. Normally, it involves guarding VIPs such as politicians, celebrities, company directors, or their children, but occasionally there are times when a butei guards another butei whose life is threatened. For the most part, the bodyguard will live with the person he or she is guarding, but in this case, the client—Shirayuki—has conversely expressed a strong desire to live at my place. Well, I had absolutely no intention of living in a girl’s dormitory, which is essentially a field of hysteria mode landmines, so this was the better option, but ... I didn’t think she’d be moving in the very next day.

“Muto-kun, is really okay for you to do this for free? I should at least pay for gasoline ...” Shirayuki offered.

“Don’t sweat it! This is nothing!”

Muto, who for some reason, spoke so formally to Shirayuki despite being in the same grade, got off Logi’s mini-truck, which he used to bring Shirayuki here. He then began unloading her things in such a robotic fashion that I found it sickening to watch.

... Was Muto always the type to enjoy physical labor this much?

“Um ... if my memory serves me correctly, this is the third boy’s dormitory, isn’t it?” asked Muto

“Uh ... yeah,” replied Shirayuki.

“Were you planning on using an empty apartment for storage or something? If that’s the case, feel free to call me when you move everything back to the girl’s dormitory! While we’re at it, when we’re finished here, how about getting some tea or something to eat ...?”

“Ah, Kin-chan!”

Shirayuki’s face lit up as she saw me coming out of the lobby.

Muto, who had started to say something, looked at Shirayuki, then at me, then at Shirayuki again, and a question mark formed over his spikey hair.

“Kin ... Tohyama?”

“Muto-kun, the thing is, as of today I’m going to be living in Kin-cha ... Tohyama-kun’s apartment.”

“Ki-Kinji’s apartment?”

“Just so you know, it’s part of my job.” I said. “I was chosen to be Shirayuki’s bodyguard. It’s Aria’s fault. Don’t go around telling people.”

Having heard my explanation, Muto could do nothing but gape at me speechless.

What kind of reaction is that?

I was the one who should be speechless. I have to live with two female beasts that could go on a rampage at the drop of a hat. When I returned to my apartment, which still looked like a battlefield, Aria was in the living room tinkering with the window. Taking a closer look, I could see she was setting up an infrared sensor that they sold at the school store.

“What are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell by looking? I’m fortifying this apartment.”

“Don’t!”

“You’re a butei. What are you getting all excited about? We have to make sure we’re alert to any enemies who approach our client. So much stuff around here is broken anyway. It makes things easier.”

“You’re the one who broke everything.”

“Okay. All that’s left is the skylight.”

Aria magnificently ignored my protests and proceeded to install an infrared sensor on the window above the desk. Unfortunately for her, at 142 centimeters, she didn’t reach. She stretched out her hand as far as she could, and a metal washtub fell down directly onto her head.

That’s what you get.

“I-I’m l-letting myself i-in ...” came Shirayuki’s voice from the doorway as she entered the apartment. She took off her Butei High issued strap shoes, and after neatly placing them by the door, bowed her upper body by ninety degrees, displaying a bright, glossy ring of light that was reflected in her long, black hair.

“S-Starting today, I’ll be in your care. My name is Shirayuki Hotogi.”

I know.

“I-I have my imperfections, but I hope we get along!”

“Shirayuki ... what are you getting all worked up for? It’s not like this is the first time you’ve been here.”

“Ah ... when I think of how I’m going to be living in your apartment, I just get so nervous,” said Shirayuki, smiling bashfully.

Nervous? The other day, you were swinging a katana around in here.

“Um, since I’m moving in, I’ll clean the place while I’m at it. After all, I am the one who made a mess of it in the first place.”

Shirayuki quickly scuttled towards the kitchen where Aria was setting up a surveillance camera and glared at her with sanpaku eyes.

“Hehe. I’ll have to get rid of the large-sized garbage as well.”

She quickly reverted back to her usual smile she always wore and her sweet voice, as melodious as bell.

... No comment.

Or so I thought at first.

“No piano wire, okay?” I warned, remembering the death trap that had been set up in Aria’s locker.

Shirayuki opened her eyes wide, waving her long eyelashes.

“Piano wire? What do you mean?”

... Feigning innocence, huh?

But thinking it over, I decided not to get any further involved in their battle. I was bound to live longer that way.

Much unlike Aria, who never did anything that could fall under the category of a household chore, Shirayuki’s skills in doing housework could only be defined as godly. I couldn’t even get motivated enough to clean up this landfill that was my apartment, but Shirayuki quickly disposed of all the junk, rigorously vacuumed everywhere, sealed all the holes in the walls and floor with putty, and replaced the carpet. She had the whole apartment cleaned up in less than three hours. To top it all off, she even decorated the place with a flower arrangement of Gypsophila and greenhouse cultivated Large Pink.

“... Wow ...” I whispered to myself as I set down by the wall Shirayuki’s paulownia wood chest of drawers, which I had carried up from the lobby. When I tried to help out with something, Shirayuki refused to let me saying, “I can’t let you do that!” so this type of heavy labor was the only thing I could do. Just then, seeing Shirayuki go into the kitchen, Aria walked up to me. “Kinji, make sure you also check that chest for any dangerous items.”

“Dangerous items? This is one of Shirayuki’s personal belongings.”

“There’s always the chance that someone slipped something inside it on its way here.”

“Aria ... that’s what’s known as fear aroused from suspicion.”

“Butei Charter, Article Seven: Always prepare for the worst scenario and take the best action. I’m going to cordon off the balcony so I’ll be busy. You be sure to inspect that drawer or else later there’s gonna be a hole opening festival.”

I’ve never heard of such a dangerous festival.

“Okay, okay.”

“One ‘okay’ will suffice!”

I watched Aria reproachfully as she stepped out into the balcony with a toolbox in hand and reluctantly inspected the exterior of the chest of drawers. Naturally, there was nothing dangerous to be found. I selected a drawer and opened it to find cosmetics and other various items. I proceed to the next drawer.

“…?”

Inside were many bundles of cloths, the purpose of which I couldn’t guess. Each one was folded up very neatly, and they were all packed together in an orderly fashion like candies of assorted colors in a gift box. Some of them had a small ribbon attached to them.

“...?”

Two wooden tags labeled “plain” and “battle” divided the bundles of cloths into two sections. The ones in the “plain” section were all pure white, while the ones in the “battle” section were black.

Battle? So these are some kind or armaments?

I took one of the suspicious bundles into my hands. Judging from the black cloth’s sheen, I presumed it to be one-hundred percent silk. It was as thin as a piece of string, and the triangular portion at the bottom was adorned with an elegant torchon lace. I spread apart the semitransparent cloth...

“...!”

Shoving the black cloth back into the drawer, I slammed it shut.

Dangerous items ... They were inside.

To be more precise, they were items that posed a danger to me. All of the bundles of cloths in this drawer ... they were all underwear! What’s more, they were probablyrisqué pieces of lingerie like G-strings and low-rise panties and the like—just like those my brother had told me about it when he was alive.

That Shirayuki ...

She was always acting like a modest, graceful, ideal Japanese woman ... but behind the scenes, she was wearing that kind of underwear? Now that I think about it, there was that time when I happened to see down her blouse and she was wearing something black that didn’t fit the image of an honor student.

T-This is bad. Don’t do it, Kinji. If you go into hysteria mode over something like this, that just makes you a pervert!

“Ah, Kin-chan, I’m sorry about that. It’s my drawer, but you brought it up for me, didn’t you.”

I spun around in surprise at being called from behind. Before I realized it, Shirayuki had walked up fairly close to me. Shirayuki, who cheerfully took off a pair of cream-colored mittens, must have planned on cooking after she finished cleaning because she was wearing a frilly apron over her uniform.

“Oh, i-it was nothing. Let me help out with the heavy stuff at least.”

“Thank you, Kin-chan ... You really are strong, aren’t you? Such a gentleman.”

Shirayuki was smiling at me happily. Apparently, she didn’t see what I was doing just a moment ago. Seeing Shirayuki in that apron and skirt, my eyes couldn’t help but notice the elegant, female curve of her waist. Unlike Aria’s underdeveloped figure, Shirayuki was somewhat famous for having proportions you wouldn’t normally expect to see on a high-school girl. According to the idiots in my class who spied on the girls during their swimming lessons, Shiriyuki in a swimsuit was on par with a bikini model.

This isn’t good. I think I might start to envision Shirayuki in her “battle garbs.” Even if she is a childhood friend, if that image enters my head, it’s all over.

The very thought of it was unnerving.

“... Uhh ... let’s see. I’ll leave the bodyguarding to Aria for a while. I’m gonna step outside for a bit.”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“J-Just outside. Don’t be so nosey,” I said agitatedly and in a hurry to get out of there.

“Ah ... right. I was prying. I’m sorry,” Shirayuki said, bowing in panic.

It’s times like these that her obedient nature comes in handy.

I didn’t have a particular place in mind so I went to kill time at Roxie, the one and only family restaurant on Academy Island. I was sitting at a table when I heard the tune used during the Ar-kata coming from my cell phone.

“Hey, you!”

A small fist hammered me on the forehead. Removing my earphones, I looked up to see Aria beside the table with her arms crossed.

“What are you slacking off for, Kinji?!”

“There’s a ... reason for this. Why did you leave the apartment?

“I came in search of deserters while I was out doing some shopping. I have a legitimate reason to be here,” said Aria, producing two handcuffs from underneath her skirt. Those handcuffs, which were made of pure silver and had Latin runes inscribed on their surface, were anti-esper handcuffs. I had seen them before at the student store and remember staggering when I noticed the high price for which they sold.

“I’m hardly a deserter. More importantly, how could you leave Shirayuki alone?”

“Reki’s watching over her.”

“Reki?”

“I asked for her help. I’m having her guard Shirayuki from a distance,” said Aria, plopping down onto the seat across from me.

Reki.

Her last name is unknown. That alone makes her incredibly suspicious, but in addition to that, she was taciturn, expressionless, and emotionless—three traits that made her a veritable robot. She was also the student in the Snipe division who helped us resolve that bus-jacking incident a while back. In terms of skill, she‘s a child prodigy who has been an S-rank butei since her freshman year, but she has a habit of sitting on the school roof with her knees pulled up to her chest all day and was always listening to God knows what with those huge headphones of hers. Understanding Aria is way easier compared Reki. She was harder to figure out than Aria.

... So you got Reki involved, huh?

When Aria said Reki was watching over Shirayuki, I immediately had an image of Reki adjusting her lining of Shirayuki in the sights of her scope. “She’ll only be doing it part-time though. She said she’s going to be participating in the Adsiard as a representative of Japan for the sniping competition, so she’ll be pretty busy. We can only use her for a limited amount of time. Not to mention, snipers aren’t normally suited for bodyguarding. That’s why you and I have to do a good job of guarding Shirayuki. Hello?! Are you listening to me?!”

“S-Stop pulling my ear! I was just thinking about Reki is all. I’m listening. Besides ... I doubt anybody is targeting Shirayuki anyway. Hire anyone you want.”

“Take this seriously, Kinji. This is an official mission.”

“Why did you suddenly say you wanted to be Shrayuki’s bodyguard anyway? That’s what I wanna know.”

It was something I wanted to ask since yesterday, and after posing the question in an angry manner, Aria ... started to methodically wink her eyes a number of times.

She was making winking signals. It was a signal buteis used when relaying information that shouldn’t be heard by the people around them. I deciphered the winks, which were similar to Morse code.

Durandal’s ... wiretapping ... danger? What’s that supposed to mean?

Aria signed for me to come closer so I leaned over the table and pricked up my ears. She began whispering in my ear so closely that I could feel her breath.

What is with this girl? Even her breath has a nice, bittersweet smell.

“Durandal is one of the people who used my mom as a scapegoat. The master swordsman I mentioned to you during our morning training the other day is probably Durandal. If we can arrest him when he comes for Shirayuki, my mother’s sentence will be reduced to six hundred and thirty-five years, and if everything goes well, we might be able to get the case remanded to the High Court.”

Oh. I see now. So that’s what this is about. No wonder her attitude changed the second she heard Durandal’s name at the educational affairs department.

I was getting a firm grasp on the situation when my cell phone rang, making it seem as if our conversation actually was being overheard.

“?”

I tugged on the Leopon strap and looked at my cell phone.

Oh. It’s just Shirayuki.

“Hello?”

“Kin-chan, dinner will be ready soon. I tried my hand at Chinese cuisine today.”

“Okay. I got it. I’ll be back soon.”

“Okay. I’ll be waiting. But if you’re with a friend or anyone, you can come later.”

“Sure ...”

If I tell her that I’m with Aria, she’s probably going to be in a bad mood again.

“I’m not with anyone. I’ll be right there.”

“What you mean? I’m here,” Aria said.

“K-Kin-chan? I just heard Aria’s voice . . .”

Gah! Aria, take a hint!

“Uhh … Aria just walked by right now.”

“What are you talking about? We’ve been talking together the whole time. Are you stupid?” came Aria’s voice again.

“... Kin-chan ...” Along with Shirayuki’s voice, which became somewhat frightening, I heard a kitchen knife cleanly slicing though a white radish or something of that nature. “... why are you lying to me?”

W-What’s with this voice?! It's like something out of a horror film!

“Ah, yeah, you got it! I’ll be there right away!”

Slamming my cell phone shut, I turned towards Aria, the girl who can’t read between the lines, and yanked on one of her pigtails. She cried out just like little girl, which made me feel slightly better. A few seconds later, she gave me a high-flying drop kick in retaliation though.

We return to the apartment to find plate after plate of Chinese dishes lined up on the dinner table. It was an assortment of fried rice with crab, stir-fried shrimp in chili sauce, sweet-and-sour pork, gyoza, mini-ramen, and even abalone with oyster sauce. It was nothing less than a Manchu Han Imperial Feast. And they were all my favorite foods. I sat at the table, and still wearing an apron over her uniform, Shirauki gracefully walked up beside me, carrying a tray with Jasmine tea on it. When I looked up at Shirayuki, she was busily tidying up her bangs. I think it was a habit of hers.

“G-Go ahead and eat. I made it all just for you.”

It looked like she wasn’t going to eat until I did, so I helped myself to the sweet-and-sour pork. Indeed, the meat was delectable. It was the unmistakable taste of delicious pork. Its rich, sweet-and-sour taste softly enveloped my tongue. Shirayuki’s cooking skills knew no bounds. The difference between Shirayuki and Aria, whose hands became an utter, drippy mess just from attempting to fry an egg and failing to do so in the end, was as large as the difference the land and the sky. No, it was as different as the stratosphere and the Japan Trench.

“Is ... is it good?”

“It’s great.”

Hearing my answer, Shirayuki looked as if she couldn’t be happier and hid the lower half of her face with the tray. She whispered, “I’m so glad, dear,” under her breath, and I wondered who it was she was fantasizing about. But what was really bothering me was the fact that the food was so tasty, and yet it didn’t really feel like I was eating when I was being stared at so intently.

“Shirayuki, you sit down and eat too. Why are you always trying to take care of me?”

“T-That’s because ... you’re Kin-chan.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“... I-I guess not,” replied Shirayuki with a wry smile and taking her place at the table. Aside from Shirayuki, Aria sat with her arms crossed and a bulging vein on her temple.

“So? Why aren't there any plates in front of me?”

“This is yours,” said Shirayuki with a voice as icy as the Antarctics and placed a bowl in front of Aria. In the bowl was a pair of wooden chopsticks standing in a lump of white rice. And the chopsticks hadn’t even been split apart.

“Why?!”

“If you have a problem with it, I'll dismiss you from being my bodyguard.”

Shirayuki coldly turned her back on Aria, and Aria, after a few moments of gritting her teeth, gobbled down her rice like a ravenous animal.

I, wanting to watch Sunday Western Movie Theater, and Aria, wanting to watch the two-hour special of Amazing Animals, were gripping each other’s faces as we fought over the TV remote when Shirayuki came into the living room with some sort of card game.

“Kin-chan, um ... these are called priestess tarot cards ...”

“Priestess tarot ... fortune-telling?”

“Yeah. I’ll read your fortune. You seemed to be worried about the future.”

“Oh? Let’s give it a try then.”

Shirayuki’s divinations often came true, so I had nothing to lose by listening. Since Aria was biologically female, she seemed to have an interest in that fortune-telling stuff and divinations, so after voicing her interest, she set the HDD recorder to record her animal show and joined us at the table.

If you don’t mind recording it, then stop being so stubborn and let me watch my show.

“Kin-chan, what kind of fortune do you want told? Love? Money? Romance? Health? Love affairs?”

“Hmm … Let’s go with my future. Tell me what I’m going to be doing in a few years.”

Upon hearing my request, Shirayuki clicked her tongue but quickly smiled like an angel and replied, “Sure thing.” She placed the cards face down in the shape of a star and then began turning some of them over.

So am I going to be able to become a respectable human being? Will I be able to transfer to a regular high school and get a job at an ordinary company or government office?

Even if it were just a divination, I wanted to know at least that much.

“Well?” asked Aria, and I saw a slightly stern expression on Shirayuki’s face.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Huh? Ah ... nothing. You’re overall luck is very good. Isn’t that great, Kin-chan?”

“What? Is that it? Can’t you tell me something more concrete?”

“Ah, um, you’re going to marry someone with black hair. Wouldn’t that be something,” Shirayuki said with a smile that looked rather forced.

What was that all about? I wonder what she really saw. It’s really nagging at the back my bind.

“Okay, I’m next!” Aria, unable to restrain herself, nearly climbed onto the table, and from the looks of things, my turn had quickly come to an end. She gathered the cards together and pushed them towards Shirayuki, demanding that she hurry. “I don’t have to tell you my birthday or anything? I’m a Virgo.”

“Really? You don’t seem like one.”

Aria’s expression showed that she was quite peeved by the comment, but she sat in a proper Japanese fashion and waited for the results. With an extremely unwilling look on her face, Shirayuki lined up the cards and turned one over.

“Your overall luck can only be described as horrendous,” Shirayuki said as apathetically as possible and started gathering up the cards.

She obviously didn’t divine anything.

“Hey! Do it right! You’re a shrine maiden, aren't you?!”

“You’re complaining about my divination?! I won’t stand for this!”

“You wanna settle this by more physical means?”

The two of them began glaring at each other fiercely.

T-This is bad.

“If you want to go at it, that’s fine with me. I didn’t use it the last time because the Hotogi family forbids it, but I still have an ace up my sleeve,” said Shirayuki, knitting the brows under her perfectly straight bangs, and to this, Aria responded by standing up.

“I also have a ... two aces up my sleeve!”

“I have three!”

“Then I have four!”

“Five!”

“Tons!”

“For crying out ... would you two pipe down?! Why can’t the two of you just do one little divination peacefully?!”

In the future, it really should be the stance of nations to prevent war before it happens. I used my hands to physically separate them before the situation escalated into something I couldn’t handle.

“Bleeeah.” Aria pulled down her lower eyelid with her forefinger and stuck out her tongue. Then, sulking, she shut herself up in her room.

Beeep. Gagagaga.

The transceiver I borrowed from Connect the other day to make sure no suspicious radio waves were being transmitted around the apartment started to activate. Scratching the back of my head, I turned towards Shirayuki ... who was looking quite sullen as well.

“... I don’t mean to say bad things about Aria behind her back, but,” said Shirayuki, deftly gathering up the cards, “she’s cute but she’s annoying. And she doesn’t understand you at all. She’s always so rude to you. All the guys say Aria’s cute but ... I don’t like her.”

She said it all in one breath. It was the first time I had ever heard Shirayuki speak ill of another person. She cast a quick upward glance at me. In other words ... she was waiting for me to give my opinion of Aria.

“Aria ...?”

To tell the truth, I just made a little discovery about Aria and Shirayuki. I wasn’t sure whether or not I should mention it now though and put out some feelers.

“Say, do you really ... dislike Aria?”

“... Huh?”

“I mean ... how should I put this? You’re pretty straightforward with Aria, wouldn’t you say? When it’s me, you always act so suspiciously. Not only that ... well, I might be off the mark here but ... I don’t think I’ve ever seen you express your emotions so openly before.”

“...”

“It kind of seems like the way you act towards Aria is more like the real you than the way you act towards me and everyone else ... you know? Don’t get me wrong. I’d prefer if you didn’t fight with anyone. It’s just that, even when you two are fighting, there seems to be something between you guys that just clicks, don’t you think?”

As a rule, Shirayuki is the type of person who listens to others. And listening to others is a good thing. That’s how the world sees it. That’s why everyone regards Shirayuki so highly. Naturally, the teachers, who don't know anything about the Shirayuki that goes into armored priestess mode, are fond of her, and she’s relied upon by all the students—both guys and girls. But there’s also a problem with this personality that causes her to act so obediently in front of everyone. That’s what I think. Shirayuki might be acting obediently, but she isn’t expressing her true intentions. However, I get the feeling that when Aria is involved, Shirayuki engages her with her true intentions surging out all over the place. I could be misinterpreting the whole thing, of course.

There was a brief silence.

“... Kin-chan ...” said Shirayuki, tilting her head down slightly and lowering her eyes under those perfectly straight bangs, “you really do know me well, don’t you.”

“Well, you know. We’ve been together since we were kids. There were long periods of times we spent apart though.”

“You probably understand me better than I understand myself.”

Shirayuki’s voice had become softer than it was previously, and resituating herself, she inconspicuously moved closer to me.

“Aria ... came storming right into our private world—just like a bullet.”

Was there such a world?

... is what I was thinking, but I didn’t interject so as not to disrupt the flow of the conversation.

“I came at her with everything I had ... and she took it all head on without retreating a single step. It’s just like you said. I do dislike her, on the whole. But in a certain aspect ... I do think she’s an amazing girl.”

Hmm. As I thought, it isn’t that she simply dislikes Aria. The feelings she has towards her are more complex than that.

“But that’s exactly why ... I don’t want her to take you away from me. That girl has a certain charm about her.”

“... No one’s taking anyone anywhere. I said this before, but Aria and I are fellow buteis. When our job is done, we’re just going to say our goodbyes like regular teammates. Aria’s not a childhood friend like you are.”

“Childhood friend ... That’s right,” Shirayuki said with her face lighting up. She must have been using some kind of special movement because before I realized it, she had slid up right beside me without changing her posture at all.

Hold up, there. Our shoulders are practically touching. In fact, they are.

“You’ve known me for so long. That fact makes me so happy. I remember it all—all the way back to those days when I had never even left Hotogi Shrine before ...”

Shirayuki was rapt with memories as she spoke and tilted her head in my direction. Her black hair, glossy as strands of silk, fell against my arm. I could faintly smell the pleasant scent of sandalwood.

“Aah ... now that you mention it, there was a time like that, wasn’t there.”

When I was about four or five years old, there was a period in which I lived in Aomori because of my brother’s job. Hotogi Shrine was located in the city’s suburbs, and that’s where I first met Shirayuki. At that time, Shirayuki was told that she mustn’t leave the shrine, and she rigidly obeyed. Having an exceptionally shy personality, Shirayuki was afraid of me at first, but she soon opened up and invited me to play with her and the other young Hotogi shrine maidens.

“I remember when the two of us went to watch the fireworks,” Shirayuki said, “I was so happy then ...” It finally came to point where Shirayuki rested her head on my shoulder as she started to talk about the past. “You were so excited about the fireworks festival they were having in the city and took me out of the shrine to go see it. It was the first time I had ever left the shrine since as long as I can remember.”

“Oh ... that. I’m surprise you remember.”

If I recall, when we got back, all the adults got really upset with me, and Shirayuki wasn’t allowed outside the storehouse for a while.

“We got in so much trouble, but afterwards, you still came by to play all the time.”

“I was there because my brother’s job forced us to relocate. Plus, there were no other kids my age in the neighborhood.

What was it that we played? I wanted to play soccer, but I was outnumbered by young shrine maidens who rejected the idea, so I always wound up having to play house or origami or bird-in-the-cage.²

Little birdy, little birdy, the bird in the cage is—

I still remember that song. I also remember how my brother would sympathetically call Shirayuki and the others “caged birds.”

Sitting in the corner while the Adsiard preparatory committee was having a meeting, I found myself thinking of Aria. Lately, she was hard a worker running all over the place gathering information on Durandal. Aria was being so cautious that the slightest sound in the middle of the night would cause her to jump up with pistols at the ready. But the fact that our enemy couldn’t be seen, along with the stress of living with a mother-in-law like Shirayuki, had clearly put her in a bad mood.

“... I think it would be great if Hotogi at least participated in the Ar-kata for the opening ceremony.”

“I agree. There is one opening that needs to be filled.

For what it’s worth, Butei High is a high school so there’s a student council. But due to school regulations, all the members of the student council are girls. This is because previously when the student council consisted of boys, a gunfight broke out over how to allocate the budget for club activities. This school really is the pits. And so, this Adsiard preparatory committee is mostly made up of the members of the student council. As for why I’m present at this boring and dangerous (with girls everywhere) meeting, I’m here acting as Shirayuki’s bodyguard. Rather, I’m here because Aria ordered me to be here.

“Hotogi does have the look. I think she’ll leave a good impression on the reporters.”

“I think so too. She’ll probably improve the image of Butei High—buteis in general, really.”

“After all, Hotogi is the one who developed the choreography we’re using this year … Hotogi, you can do the Ar-kata cheer routine, can’t you?”

I tilted my eyes in the direction of our student body president to see how she was reacting to all of these opinions.

“Y-Yes. But ... I would really prefer to make my contributions from behind the scenes.”

Shirayuki quickly glanced up at me with pleading eyes, and my response to her, which I kept to myself, was to hurry up and put an end to this meeting. All of the main topics for discussion had already been dealt with, and the meeting was just sloppily dragging along at this point. Those thoughts must have been telepathically transmitted to Shirayuki though.

“Well, it’s already gotten this late. I’d like to call an end to the meeting,” Shirayuki declared in a clear and well-projected voice. When Shirayuki got like this, her pronunciation was so clean, and it made her seem very reliable. If Aria were a voice actress, then Shirayuki was a TV announcer. Those were the thoughts vaguely floating in my head as I got out my seat yawning loudly. Not long after the meeting came to an end, the girls started making a racket.

“Hey, you wanna go to Odaiba after this?”

“Oh, great idea!”

“I’m there! Did you know that Marui was remodeled?”

“I want a summer miniskirt!”

“That reminds me! Estella’s limited edition Sugar Leaf Pies are going on sale today!”

“There she goes! Food over fashion! You’re a shining example of an unpopular female butei!”

“Hahaha, that was hilarious!”

Here we go. Everyone and their charming little smile ... I hate this sort of thing. The reason you girls aren’t popular is because you’re all toting pistols. Get a clue.

“How about you, Hotogi? Wanna get ready for summer and check out their selection?” asked a freshman. Shirayuki looked liked she didn’t understand the meaning of the question.

“Ah, I have to go home and do my SSR assignments and create guide booklets for the Adsiard ...” said Shirayuki, lowering her head.

“That’s Hotogi for you. She’s so diligent ...”

“You never get tired, do you Hotogi?”

“You’re a real superwoman ...”

They weren’t being sarcastic; they were sincerely showing the respect they had for Shirayuki. But ... at the same time, it also felt as if they found Shirayuki to be a little bizzare. That’s the sense I had.

The sun was setting, and I was walking home with Shirayuki at my side. The clubhouse where the committee meeting took place was nearby the boy’s dormitory, so we could get back on foot. Going back home with a girl was the last thing I wanted to do, but being her bodyguard, it couldn’t be helped. If I had her go back by herself and Aria found out about it later, who knows how many holes she would open in me.

“I-I was pretty nervous today since you were watching. How ... was I?”

Shirayuki was acting bashful as she held her school bag in front of her legs with both hands, but her face showed how happy she was to be leaving school with me.

“It looked like everyone had the utmost faith in you. Pretty good, wouldn’t you say?” I said candidly. Shirayuki lowered her face, which had become as red as a scarlet hakama.

“... K-Kin-chan complimented me ...” Shirayuki said under her breath.

Hey, keep your eyes ahead of you while you walk. Ah. See? Right into a utility pole.

“Oh yeah. You’re not going participate in the Ar-kata? Everyone wanted you to.”

“I-I couldn’t possibly. I can’t participate in the Ar-kata. It’s better to have a ... more cheerful and cuter girl doing cheers. If a boring girl like me were to participate, it would ruin the image of Butei High.”

“Shirayuki ... the way you demean yourself like that is a bad habit of yours. All you have to do is pretend to be really enthusiastic when you’re actually doing the cheer routines. You’d start off pretending, but before you know it, you might genuinely get enthusiastic about it. Then when the time comes for the actual performance and you show off that enthusiasm in front of a crowd of spectators, you’re likely to build some confidence.”

“But ...”

“Don’t tell me you’re scared about the whole Durandal thing the education affairs department is all riled up about. Durandal doesn’t exist. Nobody’s going to be sniping at you or anything.”

“Yeah ... I know. There is no Durandal ... but I can’t do it.”

“Why not?”

“My family would be upset with me.”

The Hotogis. Shirayuki’s relatives at the Hotogi Shrine.”

“Why would they get upset with you for something like that?”

In the past, Shirayuki had made similar remarks on more than one occasion, so I had a vague sense of the reason why. The people at Hotogi Shrine put a lot of restrictions on Shirayuki when she left to go to high school in Tokyo. They placed a great deal of importance on formalities and forbade her to do all sorts of things.

“I’m … not allowed to attract too much attention to myself in front of large groups of people,” Shirayuki said obstinately. She didn’t explain the reason, but simply gave another negative statement. I guess it’s just absolutely out of the question.

“... When the other girls invited you to go to Odaiba, you turned them down too. Was that also because of your family?”

I asked thinking that couldn’t possibly be the reason, but...

“Yeah.”

“You serious?”

“I ... can't leave the shrine or school without permission.”

You are serious. Even among family, forbidding someone to ever go out is a bit harsh, isn't it? It’s an infringement of human rights, I dare say.

As if she knew I was going to object, Shirayuki spoke up before I could get a word in.

“Hotogi shrine maidens are guardian shrine maidens. From the day we are born until the day we die, our bodies and our souls are not to leave Hotogi.” She seemed to be speaking to herself as she said it. “The truth is ... for generations, we as shrine maidens are supposed to spend our entire lives at Hotogi Shrine. That’s just how it is. Of course, we go to other shrines when we have duties to attend at them, and there’s compulsory education now as well ... but we have to keep things like that at a minimum. They were very much against the idea of me even coming to Butei High ...”

“But here you are. There’s no need for you to uphold those traditions so blindly. You can’t enjoy being a high school student if you’re always afraid of someone getting upset with you. What are you acting like a good little girl for?”

“...”

“You don’t have worry about making dinner today. Go meet up with those other girls and check out the latest fashions or whatever.”

“No, that’s okay. Besides ... I’m kind of ... afraid of being outside,” said Shirayuki with a depressed look in her lowered eyes.

“Afraid? Of Marui? It’s just a clothing department, you know?”

“But all throughout elementary and junior high school, I’ve never once left the priestess school ...”

Priestess school. It was a type of seminary and basically a boarding school attended by the daughters of wealthy, shrine-owning families.

“I would like to go out shopping and buying all sorts of foods once like everyone else does … but, I’m not confident enough to go out with others or have so many people around me.”

“...Confidence?”

“I don’t have the same kind of knowledge that everyone else has. Unless we’re talking about school, I can’t keep up a conversation ... I don’t even know what kind of clothes I should wear. Sweets, music, television ... I have no idea what’s popular. I can't relate with the others.”

“Shirauiki ...”

“But it’s okay. I have you. You understand me. You know who I really am and treat me normally, just like the way you always have. That’s why I don’t mind. I don’t need anything else.”

Shirayuki ... Shirayuki, that’s ... That’s no different from how you used to be back then. You’re so far away from Hotogi Shirine and yet ... you’re still a caged bird.

Night had fallen, and I was wiping myself off after stepping out of the shower. Putting on my pants, I turned off the light, and checked the clock with my back still bare. It was already ten o’clock.

Aria still hasn’t come back.

She had sent me an e-mail about going to Lezzad or something, so she was probably out searching for information on Durandal. Since becoming Shirayuki’s bodyguard, we hadn’t been able to do our training in the morning, but in exchange for that, Aria declared that she was going to be launching “surprise attacks” on me and does so on a regular basis. Naturally, I haven’t mastered the technique of catching a sword with my bare hands yet, so the lumps on my head continued to multiply. These were the thoughts running through my head as I dried my hair with a bath towel when I suddenly heard the sound of someone in slippers dashing down the hall. Judging from the footsteps, it sounded as if the person was in a panic.

“?”

What’s going on?

I looked towards the curtain that partitioned off the bathroom.

“Kin-chan?! What’s wrong?!”

The curtain flew completely open. It was Shirayuki in her priestess garbs. For some reason, her face was full of anxiety and her cute round eyes were wide open.

“W-Wha?!” I exclaimed, taken completely of guard and taking a step back.

Now that I think about, this situation … Normally—well, I’m not really sure what’s normal in a situation like this, but aren’t the gender roles switched here?!

For a quick moment, I was having such a hard time coping with the ordeal that this was the kind of inane analysis I made.

“W-What is it all of a sudden?!”

“Huh? You … On the phone, you ...”

“... Phone?”

“Y-You said to come right away and hung up suddenly, so ...”

“I didn’t call anyone!”

“But it was your voice! It was an unidentified call, but you said you were in the bathroom!”

That’s not possible. She must have been hearing things.

“How could I make a phone call when I was taking a shower?! That’s insane!”

“B-But the ph-ph-phooo …!”

It would seem that Shirayuki’s brain had finally finished processing the fact that I was naked from the waist up, and her eyes went from my face to my collarbone, chest, and ultimately my navel. Her face, which seconds ago had been nearly drained of color, became bright red from the bottom of her chin to the top of her forehead, just like some sort of meter. She then took a deep breath—almost as if she were meditating; only her face was nowhere as composed.

“I’m!”

“I’m”?

“I’m so sorry!!”

Shirayuki jumped back diagonally in a more peculiar way than I could have ever imagined. In midair, she bent her knees so that she was sitting in the proper Japanese fashion, and extending her arms in front of her, landed with her forehead touching the floor. It was the perfect dogeza.³

“I-I-I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

Shirayuki bundled herself up, and her ears were so red I thought steam would be coming out of them. Shirayuki suddenly lifted her head, and she was so worked up that her eyes were swirling like whirlpools.

“... It’s because you were in the bathroom! It’s because you were naked that I was imagining you taking a shower! It's true! I-I was practicing kidou techniques but my heart wasn’t really into it! It’s all true!”

“I-I didn’t ask!”

“But then my imagination ... ! It was all woosh, and whoom! P-Please forgive me! I’m-I’m such a bad person! I’m just pretending to be a good girl, but the truth is I’m a bad girl who thinks of naughty things! I could be a Hollywood actress! I’m such a ... #$%&!”

This is bad.

“H-Hey ...”

At this rate, something was going to snap, and Shirayuki, who was a bit strange to begin with, might just go completely of the deep end. For the meantime, I put one knee on the floor and knelt in front of Shirayuki.

“C-Come on. Relax. Someone probably called the wrong number. It’s not something you need to apologize for,” I said, making my best effort to sound as calm as possible ... but approaching Shirayuki half naked proved to be a mistake. Shirayuki swiftly covered her eyes with both hands. I did have a feeling she was looking at my chest though the cracks between her fingers though ... And then ...

“We’ll call it even!” Shirayuki suddenly screamed incomprehensibly again. She stopped covering her face and it was completely red as if she had a fever. In truth, she really was burning up.

What are you, a stove?

“‘We’ll call it even’? What are you talking about?”

Shirayuki’s dysfunctional thought processor turned out an equally dysfunctional solution. “If you watch me while I change clothes, we’ll be even!”

“Say what?!”

Shirayuki grabbed the collar of her white kimono with her right hand and unraveled the belt of her hakama with the left. She rapidly began taking off her priestess garbs as if they had caught on fire!

“W-Wait! There’s no need to call anything even! That’s not what this is about! Stop undressing!” I pleaded as I grabbed Shirayuki’s clothes, trying to keep them on her.

“I’m undressing! I’ve made up my mind! I’m fine with this! If you’re the one watching, then it’s fine! In fact, it’s fine! So please, don’t worry about it!”

N-No way in hell I’m letting you get undressed!

If the day ever comes when I see those “battle panties” on Shirayuki, I can say without a single doubt in my mind that I’ll be on the fast track to hysteria mode. I was doing everything in my power to keep Shirayuki’s kimono and hakama on her body.

“Kin-chan, stop! Let go!” cried Shirayuki.

“Just do what I say!” I cried in return.

“I’m back,” announced Aria.

... ...

... Aria …?

Arai, coming back at the worst possible timing, dropped the paper bag she was carrying, and a Matsumotoya peach bun that fell out rolled along floor. It kept going until it rolled up against Shirayuki’s white socks as she continued to struggle with me. With the arrival of a third party, Shirayuki hastily began straightening up her priestess garbs. Her black eyes had tears in them, and her clothes were disheveled. ... And I, half naked, had a firm grip on those clothes. There was also the conversation we just had. “Kin-chan, stop!” “Just do what I say!”

“... W-Why ... youuuuuu …” came Aria’s voice, like the growling of a lion.

She plunged her small hands into the sides of her skirt. “Kinji, you idiot!!”

Blam! Blam!

A jet-black and a silver Government mercilessly fired .45 ACP cartridges in my direction!

“Whoa!” I cried out, noticing the bullet hole that appeared right next to my heel and jumped to my feet.

W-Wait a second! Not only am I not wearing my bulletproof uniform, I’m naked here! “T-T-This is what happens when I leave her to you for just a few minutes?! Y-You sexual deviant! Die!”

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Aria shot at my feet with the same rhythm at with she yelled disparaging remarks at me.

“W-Wait! If we just talk about this, I can explain!” I continued to back up farther and farther as bullets imbedded themselves in the floor right in front of my toes.

“You! Are! A! Real! Beast! A maggot! Bacteria!”

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Aria stamped her feet loudly as she marched toward me with her pistols firing away, and eventually, I was cornered in the balcony.

D-Dead end!

Looking below me, I could see Tokyo Bay.

“A . . . A-A-After molesting me, now you’re going after Shirayuki?! Y-You king of perverts!” It had come to point that Aria was now pointing her two pistols at my actual body.

What are you going to do, Kinji?! If I run inside the bulletproof storage locker, it’s only going to thrown over the edge of the balcony with me inside it!

“T-That’s not it, Aria!” cried Shirakuyuki, “Stop being such a sore loser!

Hearing Shirayuki’s somewhat odd statement, Aria spun around and looked at her with furrowed brows.

“H-H-How am I being a sore loser?!”repudiated Aria, bearing her cuspid.

“Kin-chan wasn’t forcing himself on me! We were in mutual consent!”

“Mu-Mutual consent?”

“That’s right! I was trying to undress myself! Kin-chan’s not at fault!”

“U-Undress yourself? W-W-W-What in the world were you two trying to do?!”

Aria was obviously flustered, and Shirayuki lunged at her in an attempt to snatch away her pistols. I wasn’t overly thrilled about the statements she was making, but I ungrudgingly routed for Shirayuki.

“Well, e-e-e-even if you were in mutual consent …!!” said Aria, whose face quickly turned bright red as she dove in front of Shirayuki and performed a technique similar to a spring hip throw, sending the priestess backwards onto the floor.

“Aaah!”

“. . . Kinji! F-F-For a bodyguard to do something like that is taboo!” yelled Aria, now bearing her cuspid at me as she stepped over Shirayuki.

“I could overlook the two of you being friendly, b-but engaging in t-t-that kind of relationship with the client makes you a failure as a butei! A failure! A colossal failure!!” Aria’s high pitched voiced sounded like it might shatter the window in front of me. “This calls for a hole opening festival!”

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Aria ruthlessly opened fire on me with her pistols.

“Ngh!” I jumped over the side of the balcony and using the wire inside my belt, hung from the railing like Spiderman.

T-That was a close call.

Or so I thought.

“Go cool your head! And I’m not giving you a ring buoy!”

Bang! Snap!

Aria’s scolding was followed by a bullet that severed the wire, and after I bounded off the safety fence below me, a loud splash echoed in the darkness. When I had gathered my wits, I found myself in the waters of Tokyo Bay.

A bodyguard ... is not to get deeply involved with the client. Sure enough, that was one of the most basic rules of body guarding, and it was clearly written in the Assault textbook. The reason is because when a bodyguard dispenses with the proper formalities, he or she tends to be off guard and isn’t be able to be make sound judgments when the situation calls for it. But our mission this time was given to us as a result of the educational affairs department’s over-protectiveness, and one could argue that it was more like “playing bodyguard.” This whole ordeal came to pass simply because Aria had changed her attitude and became frantic at hearing the name “Durandal,” so it was very much a bother when she got angry with me, her partner, for not taking it more seriously. So here we are now. The exhaustion was already taking its toll on me, and after coming out of the shower only to get into a fight with Shirayuki in my birthday suit, I wound up plummeting into Tokyo Bay ...

… and catching a cold.

In the morning, my head was reeling as I held a thermometer in my mouth, and Aria was fairly cross as she told me what a disgrace I was, but she didn't torment me any further like she usually does. Shirayuki vehemently insisted on staying home as well so that she could nurse me to health, but I couldn’t allow her to do something like that for me and somehow managed to have her go to school. Therefore, I was now spending the time lying mind-numbingly bored in my bed. My fever was wavering back and forth around a temperature of 100.4 degrees. I didn’t always feel too badly, but I was having a rough time at the moment. I was beginning to lose consciousness from the high fever that was most likely the virus army’s last resistive efforts. After a while—probably sometime around the lunch hour—somebody came into the apartment. It would seem the person came to check up on me ... which means it had to be Shirayuki. Too lethargic to even call out, I just went back to sleep. I could have sworn that I felt ... somebody tenderly laying a hand upon my aching forehead to check my temperature. It was a very gentle hand.

When I awoke, it was two in the afternoon. According to the thermometer, I still had a temperature of 100.4 degrees, but perhaps I was adjusting to the fever because I was feeling a little better.

“...”

I groggily sat up, sensing that I was the only one in the apartment. I was rather thirsty. It was probably because I had done so much sweating. Desiring a glass of water, I stumbled my way out of the bedroom, and upon closing the door, I felt something on the doorknob. It was a plastic bag.

“?”

I searched inside it to find Yamato Pharmaceutical’s “Extra Concentrated Kudzu Infusion.” It was in an old-fashioned package, and with most medications failing to have very much of an effect on me, it was the single remarkable medicine that I could take for colds.

. . . Shirayuki got this for me? She really does know me well, doesn’t she. But…did I ever tell her about this medicine? Oh, well.

Glory to the power of Extra Concentrated Kudzu Infusion. Thanks to the medicine, when I next woke up, my temperature had returned to normal. It was already evening, and when I went into the living room, I came across Shirayuki who looked as if she had just come back.

“Ah, Kin-chan, how’s your cold?”

“It’s fine. My fever went down and my headache’s gone too.”

“Thank goodness. I’m so glad,” said Shirayuki, but her expressions of relief soon changed to sniveling.

“Didn’t I tell you not to cry so much?”

“I know.” Shirayuki wiped her tears away with her finger and showed me a face beaming with happiness.

“... It’s all because of the ‘Extra Concentrated Kudzu Infusion’ you got me. After taking some and going to bed, I was cured in no time.”

“Huh? I ... was thinking of cooking you Chinese remedial foods since you don’t like medicine, but ...”

“Hm? You got it for me, didn’t you? Sorry for the trouble. They only sell it at the dirty Chinese herbal drug store on that maze-like corner of Ameyoko. It was probably a little scary for a girl to venture in there by herself. Thanks a lot.”

“Wha ... ah.” Shirayuki put a slender white finder to her lip ... and had a look that suggested she was pondering over something ... “... S-Sure,” she said at last, averting her eyes.

I’m currently inside an Assault facility that closely resembles a gymnasium and holding an electric guitar, which doesn’t really suit my image. Today, we’re rehearsing for the Adsiard’s closing ceremony, so having been forced to join the Adsiard band by Aria, I, too, was doing some simple practice with a borrowed Danelectro DC 59.

“Let me show you my gratitude ...”

I wasn’t the vocalist, but I sang in a low voice as I repeatedly went over the song’s intro, which I was in charge of playing. I had practiced the guitar a little when I was taking the masquerading course at Kanagawa’s Butei junior high school, it was only a short two-minute part, and Shiranui, who was the other guitarist and the vocalist, was quite good, so practicing wasn’t too much of a chore … But this entire scene of an Assault facility being used for peaceful means just felt very odd to me. It’s sad, I do admit. Behind Muto, who was avidly beating his drums in a way that made one think he was trying to impress someone, Aria and the other girls were practicing their cheer dances with pom-poms in hand. The sounds of whistles blaring filled the air as they nimbly danced about, swinging around their short skirts.

Ah, hell. Every single last one of ’em is dressed like that.

Muto was saying something about it being a feast for the eyes that one could only partake in once a year, but to me it was horrific sight.

What am I gonna do if some mistake leads me to activating hysteria mode? I think I’ll just keep my eyes on my own hands.

“Okay everyone, that’s enough for today. Thanks for all your hard work.” Sounding just a teacher, Shirayuki, the supervisor, announced the end of rehearsal, and all the girls voiced their compliance before heading off in every direction. Now at ease, I had more than enough of this space that seemed to reek of girls, so I put away the guitar and decided to climb up the stairs and go out onto the roof. It was a beautiful, clear day in the month of May. The warm sun was inviting on my skin. It was the perfect weather for taking a nap. That being the case, I proceed to lie flat on my back and took a deep breath of the refreshing spring breeze.

Ahhh ... this is nice. The wind in May is worth its weight in gold.

Such were my thoughts as I was enjoying my nap on the rooftop when I noticed the nice, bittersweet fragrance of gardenias blended in the passing wind.

“?”

I opened my eyes halfway and was instantly thrown out of heaven and plunged into hell, which is to say, the soles of a white sneaker came down directly on my face.

“Ngh!”

Subsequently, that small sneaker began delivering a flurry of kicks to my head until I managed to roll out of the way.

“What are you slacking off for?! Guard Shirayuki like you’re supposed to be doing, you useless piece of junk!”

The person stomping her feet next to my ear was Aria in her cheerleader uniform. She had her pom-pom carrying hands on her hips, and was enraged with indignation.

“A-Aria?”

She had followed me even all the way out here. I gave her a rebellious glare as I sat up, and she lifted her leg high into the air—as high as the top of her head—with a motion that was obviously unrelated to a cheer routine. Her foot robbed me of my coveted sun and that’s when I realized ... she was expecting me to catch her guillotine-like kick with my bare hands! Determined to show her up, I proceeded to catch her axe kick...

Clap!

My hands pathetically came together in prayer right above Aria’s shin ... and the heel of a twenty-one centimeter miniature foot was planted squarely on the top of my head. I fell right back on my rear end, wishing Aria would just cut me some slack. I was used to getting punched and kicked from participating in Assaults hand-to-hand combat sessions, but the damage of constantly getting hit in the head over and over again was starting to add up. Standing in front of me, Aria stuck out her fake chest.

“Oh, come on! Get it right at least once! This isn’t a game, you know?!” Aria roared as she looked down at me with her glaring cuspid.

“L ... Look here …” I said, clutching my head as I stood up, “if you’re my partner, be a little more considerate of the condition I’m in. Let me have a break every now and then. I’m just getting over a cold because of some idiot who threw me off the balcony and into the freezing, dirty waters of Tokyo Bay at night,” I said, making a slightly long-winded sarcastic remark.

“W ... Well, I’m sorry, okay? I was thinking that I might have gone a little overboard ...” said Aria, averting her red eyes and partially turning away from me. It was a cute gesture, so I felt like following it up with a nice one of my own.

“Well, I won’t hold it against you. My cold’s cured now thanks the ‘Extra Concentrated Kudzu Infusion’ that Shirayuki gave me.”

“Huh?” Aria abruptly turned towards me again after hearing what I said. I could easily see the surprise in her wide-open eyes.

What? That wasn’t anything to really be surprised about.

“I-I’m the ...”

She started mumbling, so I gave her a look with knitted eyebrows, urging her to speak more clearly, but she just continued muttering to herself and wouldn’t tell me anything.

“... What? It’s not a name brand medicine, but it works for me. I’m pretty sure I told you about it the other day. Somehow, Shirayuki knew about it and went out and bought it for me.” For the time being, I gave Aria an explanation, and looking somewhat unpleased, she asked, “. . . Shirayuki said that?”

I wasn’t really sure what the intent of the question was, but I replied, “Hm? Yeah.”

“...”

. . . What? Why are you being so quiet all of a sudden?

“W-Well if you’ve recovered, that’s all that matters. I’m a noblewoman. I’ll put up with that sort of thing.”

“?”

Was there anything we just discussed that Aria would need to put up with? Doesn’t make any sense to me.

“Nobles don’t boast about their own exploits. It would be unsightly—even if someone else stole the credit.”

“What is it already? If you have something to say, come out and say it. This isn’t like you.”

“What’s your problem?! There’s nothing wrong with me not saying something I don’t want to say!” Aria exclaimed, sticking her small tongue at me. “I’m sure you must be happy to have Shirayuki nurse you to health! Shirayuki! Shirayuki! The one who’s always doing you so many favors is Shirayuki! Why don’t the two of you just get married?!” Aria drew near me with her cuspid looking more like a fang and her voice about three times as loud as usual.

What’s she getting heated up for so suddenly?

Clearly, something I said had to have been the trigger, but I wasn’t sure what that something was.

“H-Hold up! Why are you losing it all of a sudden?!”

“You be quiet! I’m not losing it!”

“Yeah, you are!”

“What about you?!”

Aria had gotten so close that our faces were about to touch, and that’s the condition in which we started glaring at each other. There was a difference of thirty centimeters in height between us, so Aria was glowering up at me from below while I scowled down at het from above. I was starting to get more than a little irate at Aria, who was blowing her top for no good reason. Thinking back, she had been doing nothing but aggravate me lately. She turned my apartment into a fortress, she was responsible for Shirayuki living with us, and now there was this whole incident too!

“While we’re at it, I’m gonna make myself clear on this. I was going along with your “sword catching” training because it was your decision as my partner, but no more! That’s a technique for a master fighter! It’s not the sort of thing you just learn to do by practicing!”

“You can’t quit! We’re going to continue! Durandal is rumored to have a sword that even cuts through steel! If that’s the case, you won’t be able to defend yourself with a knife or a large duralumin shield! When Shirayuki gets attacked, we’ll awaken your...”

“‘When she gets attacked’! We’ve been looking out for her for days now, and there hasn’t been the slightest bit of danger! I’ll say it one more time! There is no enemy! There is no Durandal!” Aria responded by looking at me with her red eyes wide open. “I know that you’re in a hurry to save Kanae as soon as possible. But your eagerness is causing you to lose your presence of mind right now! As soon as you heard the name of somebody who might be one of your enemies, you thought to yourself that you wanted him to exist. And now you’ve deluded yourself in thinking he really does!”

“That’s not true!” Aria insisted as she pointed a pom-pom at me while bearing her cuspid. “Durandal does exist! My intuition is telling me that he’s almost getting closer to us!”

“That’s what you call paranoia! Shirayuki’s going to be just fine, so go off somewhere else and occupy yourself with something else! Until the Adsiard is over, I’ll guard Shirayuki by myself!”

“What are you talking about?! Now I’m getting pissed off!” Aria raged from underneath me as she became red in the face. “Oh, sure! I’m a delusional girl who’s nothing but a third wheel, aren't I! You’re her bodyguard, and the two of you are busy u-u-undressing each other ... You’re detestable!”

“T…That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You’re always getting ahead of yourself by making decisions based on your own assumptions! Don’t be so full of yourself just because you were born into a family of slightly high standing! You might be a genius, but we ordinary people are the ones making this world go round! You’re a deviation from the norm!” I screamed, losing my cool.

The look on Aria’s face seemed to suggest that she was more hurt than I imagined she would be. There was no rebuttal. On the contrary, she took a step away from me. Then a second. And a third. Aria distanced herself in a display of frailty that was unlike her.

“So you’re ... like that too. That’s how you see me.” Aria’s anime-like voice was subdued and trembling. From that soft voice, it became apparent to me that conversely she was truly and sincerely angry—much more so than usual. “Nobody understands me. They all say I’m a dogmatic, trigger-happy girl who jumps to conclusions—a reject of the Holmes family. You’re ... the same way!” Aria then tilted her face downwards and continued to yell—not necessarily just at me, but as if she were yelling aloud for anyone to hear. It was almost like she was directing her words at every person on the planet. “I can tell! I know that an enemy is approaching Shirayuki! But ... but ... I can’t explain it! I’m not like my great-grandfather, the brilliant Sherlock Holmes! I can’t explain the situation theoretically so that anyone will be able to understand! That’s why no believes me! I’m always an “aria”! But ... but ... I just know intuitively! I keep telling you, so why?! Why won’t you believe me?!

With tears in her eyes, Aria flung her pom-poms on the floor and began bawling like a child. … It probably would have been a good idea to at least say something kind to her at this point. But I was already much too worked up over my argument with Aria. I was unable to be honest with myself. And as a result...

“... You got that right. I don’t understand! How am I supposed to believe an enemy is on the approach when he doesn’t even exist?! If you’re going to insist on something, then give some proof! That’s what a butei does! I’ll say it as many times as I have to! There is no enemy!” I further attacked Aria, who was already up against the wall.

“... You ... you ... big idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!!” Now she had completely gone berserk over how I wasn’t conforming to her will ... and with a flushed red face, pulled out her pistols!

“Wai…!”

Bullets came whizzing at me before I could finish my sentence. The countless projectiles flew past me at a hairs length all around my body. The only thing I could do in response to the surprise attack was hunch down, and at that moment, Aria came running towards me.

“Kinji you idiot! Gold medal idiot! Nobel Prize for idiocy!!” She yelled the words at the exact moment her foot came flying into my face, knocking me over backwards. Then after reloading her pistols, she fired repeatedly at a rather odd angle and ran down the stairs. I was lying sprawled out on the ground very much like I had been before Arai made her appearance. Looking behind me, I had an upside down view of the water tank, which was rapidly losing water. Aria’s last gunshots had riddled the tank with numerous holes, and taking a good look at it, I noticed that they formed straight lines—rather, they formed letters.

I D I O T K I N J I

Aw, come on ... How are you gonna fix that? An eraser certainly won’t help. I have to give her credit for her accuracy though. She’d win the gold medal for gun idiots at the Adsiard hands down.

After returning to my apartment later that day, I calmed down and decided I would nonchalantly apologize to Aria when she got back, so I waited for her return. But despite how long I waited, she never came home. I don’t suppose she actually went off somewhere else like I told her to.

Night had fallen and Aria still hadn’t come back, so I explained to Shirayuki, what happened.

“So, you’re the only one who’s going to act as my bodyguard from now on?” If anything, Shirayuki seemed quite pleased.

“Yeah. That’s what it sums up to.”

I slunk into the couch I bought anew and started doing some maintenance work on my Beretta M92F by disassembling it like a plastic model. A classmate of mine from Armed just finished customizing it. Aria wasn’t here. For some reason, that fact alone made even this pistol look inadequate.

“I’ll be your bodyguard until the Adsiard is over. Guarding you is a plan the educational affairs department and Aria forcibly set into motion, but ... a promise is a promise.”

Shirayuki looked as if she were deeply moved by my use of the word “promise.”

“You did promise to protect me, didn’t you ...” Shirayuki said reminiscently and cast her eyes downward. “Just the thought makes me so happy ...”

“Aren’t ... you concerned at all?” You have an E-rank butei as a bodyguard. I don’t think it’s likely, but in the off chance that Durandal does exist and comes to attack you ...” I reminded Shirayuki, but she simply shook her head.

“I never felt any concern from the very beginning.”

“…”

“After all, I have you with me. The truth is you’re a very strong person. You won’t lose to anyone. I believe in you. Kin-chan, allow me to request your assistance once more. Please protect me.”

“S… Sure.”

Shirayuki was speaking formally half in jest, and I answered almost reflexively. I could tell from Shirayuki’s voice that she wasn’t making jokes, nor was she trying to flatter me. It was the voice of a person who believed in me with all her heart. Indeed, I was the one who took out those punks that were giving Shirayuki a hard time. Ever since the day of that exam, Shirayuki had placed complete and utter confidence in me. But that confidence wasn’t placed in the “regular” me. It was placed in the hysteria mode-me at that time. In the off chance that Duradal did actually exist ... In the one in a million chance that Shirayuki was being targeted just like Lezzad, SSR ... and Aria said ... In the one in a trillion chance that anything should happen ... Would I ... be able to protect Shirayuki? Would I be able to uphold the trust that she places in me without so much as a second thought? ... Probably not. But ... it was nothing to worry about. I’d been keeping an eye on Shirayuki for days now, and there hasn’t been a sign of danger anywhere around her. That’s probably how it will continue to be. I’m sure of it.

Having decided as much, I placed the Beretta that I finished servicing on top of the table.

“K-Kin-chan-sama.” Shirayuki, who apparently had been waiting for me to finish, addressed me in that odd manner again and slowly turned herself in my direction.

“What?”

“So, that interlop ... I mean, Aria won’t be around during Golden Week either?”

“No ... I suppose not. Did you want to go somewhere?”

“N-No. I’ll be taking it easy at home while I study,” said Shirayuki, vigorously wavering her open palms at me back and forth.

“... You’re just gonna shut yourself indoors the whole time? You’re always studying. If you don’t let yourself loose every once in a while, you’re going to regret it later. You’ll say to yourself, ‘Ahh, I wish I had more fun when I was younger.’”

“B-But ...”

I saw Shirayuki losing heart and it suddenly hit me.

“Is the Hotogis?”

“...”

She didn’t deny it. Shirayuki was forbidden to leave the shrine and school grounds. She was a caged bird. Already feeling less than stellar because of my fight with Aria, the phrase only served to increase my irritation and I stood up from the couch. From there, I marched over to the computer and audibly flung myself into the chair in front of it. Turning my back on Shirayuki in itself was enough to throw her into a panic.

“K-Kin-chan, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, but I ...”

She had no idea why my mood took a turn for the worse, but for time being, she performed her conditional reflex of apologizing. Instead of responding to her, I tapped away at the keyboard and went to the homepage of a community magazine for Tokyo. Shirayuki was momentarily startled when the printer suddenly activated, but she took the paper it produced. She then offered the printout to me, turning it around so it would be easy for me to read.

“Here you are ... Kin-chan. What’s gotten into to you all of a sudden?”

“That’s not for me. It’s for you.”

“?”

Shirayuki looked shocked and turned the paper around for her to read.

“... May fifth, Tokyo Walt Land Fireworks Festival ... Come in your yukata and get an early look at the Star Illusion ...?” she read aloud and gave me puzzled look.

“Go.”

“Huh?!”

“It’s not something to be that surprised about.”

“I-I can’t! So many other people would be there! ... I ...”

“Don’t worry. You don’t have to actually enter Walt Land. It’ll be from a bit of distance, but you can watch it from Kasai Seaside Park. Think of it as outdoor training and leave the campus for one little day.”

Needing to travel somewhere for training is an odd concept, but she was an odd girl, so these were the measures that needed to be taken.

“B-But ... I ...”

As I figured, she was still reluctant so I got up and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

“... I’ll come with you ... as your bodyguard.”

“Y…you’ll come with me ...?”

“Yeah. That event is taking place before the Adsiard.” I assured Shirayuki, who eyes suddenly began to sparkle. She nodded once, flapping her perfectly straight bangs.