First Bullet La Bambina dal’ARIA

Was it Arthur Rimbaud who said, “When it rains, go out and enjoy the rain”? If a guy was going to go to such great lengths to insist that he hadn't lost, it almost seemed like positive thinking. Having missed the opportunity to ride the bus, I who might have used Rimbaud as an example, decided to go to school by bicycle as I gazed at the route lying before me.

Making my way past the neighborhood convenience store and video rental shop, I passed under the monorail station leading to Odaiba. Beyond that point, countless tall buildings could be seen on the other side of the bay. Tokyo Butei High School was located on a rectangular Mega-Float that lies to the south of Rainbow Bridge and was roughly two kilometers from north to south and five hundred meters from west to east. This Mega-Float, nicknamed “Academy Island,” was the site for a general educational institution whose purpose was the cultivation of Butei.

Butei were people who served as a countermeasure against violent crimes under a newly established and internationally acknowledged qualification. Those who were in possession of a Butei license were permitted to carry firearms and were given the power of arrest, and they could operate within the jurisdictions of the police force. However, the difference between the police and the Butei was that the Butei were driven by money. As long as someone was footing the bill, a Butei would take on any job regardless of how dangerous or trivial it may be, provided it was in accordance with Butei regulations. In other words, they were a jack-of-all-trades. At Tokyo Butei High School, in addition to general academic subjects, students could take specialized courses related to Butei activities just as the school’s name implied. There were a variety of specialized courses to choose from. The building I just passed on my right, for example, was specifically for the Inquesta department and all related classes. It was the division I transferred to during the third semester of my first year here, and the students learned about traditional deduction methodology and all kinds of techniques used in detective work. I guess you could say it was the most normal department this school had. Up ahead was the Connect department (communications), and beyond that was the Repier department (forensics). These were all fairly peaceful places to study, but if you continued ahead a little farther, you’d arrive at the department I was affiliated with up until the end of my second semester last year, the notorious Assault department.

I changed directions and made my way towards the gym.

Great. Looks like I’m going to make it in time for the opening ceremony.

This school was certainly out of the ordinary, but it still wouldn’t be a good idea to be late to the opening ceremony of the first semester.

“A bomb has been freaking planted on this bicycle.”

I heard a strange voice utter the kind of line one reads in an anonymous blackmail note with the letters clipped out of fliers and pasted together. “If you freaking get off the bicycle or freaking reduce your speed, it will freaking explode.”

Oh, I know what this is. It's an artificially made voice like the one used by that popular Vocaloid on the Internet.

It wasn’t until after having made such an analysis that I remembered a certain detail in the statement just made.

…A bomb…? What’s this all about? Who’s the idiot behind this? Is it some sort of joke?

Furrowing my eyebrows, I looked around me, and was surprised to discover that I had been unaware of a strange object speeding along beside my bicycle. It was an awkward vehicle with only two tires side by side and resembled a scarecrow on wheels. I had seen such a vehicle on television a long time ago. It was called a “Segway”.

“Do not attempt to call for help. The bomb will freaking explode if you use your cell phone.”

There was no one driving the Segway, however. In place of a person who should have been riding the machine was a speaker—that and a single mechanical barbette.

“…!”

Attached to the barbette was the muzzle of a gun pointed directly at me. An Uzi—a submachine gun manufactured by Israel IMI Co., capable of firing ten rounds of nine millimeter Parabellum ammunition per second.

“Wh-what the hell?! What kind of prank is this?!” I yelled out towards the Segway but there was no response. It simply raced along beside me with the muzzle pointed in my direction.

What the hell is this?! What’s going on all of a sudden?!

In a state of confusion, I searched the bike with my hands and found that there was something strange attached underneath the saddle. I traced it with my fingers, as I repeatedly told myself to calm down.

This is bad.

I wasn’t able to identify the type, but it seemed to be Composition C-4. And it was of considerable size. It was large enough to completely obliterate a car without leaving a trace of it behind, let alone a bicycle.

Are…you…kidding me?!

A chill ran down my spine, and I broke out into a cold sweat.

They got me. I can tell. This is no prank. I fell right into their trap. My bike’s been taken over. This is unbelievable. My bike has been hijacked!

Damn it! Damn it! Why me? Why did it come to this?

Preparing myself for the worst-case scenario, I raced around looking for a place void of any people and wound up heading for playing field number two. Peering through the wire-mesh fence, I noticed that playing field number two was empty, just as it always was in the morning. Left with no other choice, I pedaled my bike towards the entrance. The Segway continued to follow with its gun aimed right at me. This tactic the criminal was using….It was a copycat crime of the Butei killings Shirayuki had mentioned.

That’s not important, right now. What am I going to do?! That’s the issue!

I had been desperately racking my brain for a plan on the way here, but was unable to come up with any ideas.

Come on, Kinji! Are you…going to die? In a place like this?

At that moment, I noticed something that made me cock my head. In this already highly unlikely situation, I saw something yet even more unlikely. It was a seven story apartment complex located nearby the playing field—if I recall, it was the girls’ dormitory—and on the edge of the roof stood a girl. She was dressed in Butei High’s sailor uniform and had two pink pigtails long enough to be seen clearly from even this distance.

When she jumped down from the building, it looked as if she was leaping over the moon, still vaguely visible in the morning sky.

Jumped down from the building?!

For an instant, my foot almost slipped off the pedal, but I frantically regained my balance and continued pumping my legs. With her pigtails like rabbit ears streaming in the wind, the girl seemed to be dancing in midair. She must have been preparing to glide across the skies while atop that roof, because next, I heard and saw a paraglider open up above me. As I continued to pedal with eyes open wide, astounded at the scene playing out before me, I realized that this girl with her pigtails streaming in the wind was actually headed right for me!

“Y-you idiot! Don’t come this way! This bike is rigged with a bomb–” The warnings I yelled out were too late. She had been plummeting at a rate faster than I anticipated. Swerving her body as if she were on the swings of some playground, she suddenly turned at a right angle, and with her left and right hand, drew two large pistols, one silver and one black, from the hostlers she was wearing around each respective hip.

“Hey, you idiot over there! Hurry up and duck your head down!” she yelled out.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

Before I had time to lower my head, the girl unsympathetically fired at the Segway. The average optimum firing range for a pistol is said to be seven meters. But this girl was over twice the distance from her target. Not only that, but she was hanging from an unstable paraglider, and to top it off, she was firing with her arms fully extended outwards and the pistols tilted at a ninety degree angle. But in spite of all these disadvantages, the bullets she fired hit their mark as if they were being magically led to their target. The Segway wasn’t given the opportunity to fire back even a single shot and fell to the ground, its barbette and wheels falling off as it broke into pieces.

Amazing. Her shooting skills are phenomenal. I didn’t know we had a girl like that in our school.

Spinning the pistols in her hands, she returned them to their holsters and continued to flutter through the air. With the back of her skirt swaying back and forth like a pendulum, she flew over my head with a grim expression on her face—and with good reason. It was still too early to be feeling relieved. The back of her skirt wasn’t what I needed to be concentrating on. After all, it was my rear end that had an explosive attached to it, which could be used to demolish a building! I entered playing field number two in an attempt to distance myself from her.

“I-I told you to stay away from me! There are explosives planted on this bike! It’ll explode if I slow down! Y-you’re gonna get involved in the blast!”

“You imbecile!” The girl positioned herself directly above me and stomped on my head as hard as she could with her white sneakers. “Don’t you remember article one of the Butei Charter?! ‘Believe in your comrades and help one another.’ Get ready!”

The girl rode a current of air and ascended gently into the sky. Marveling at the magnificent display of paragliding skills, I forgot my anger towards being kicked in the head and watched her in awe.

She has such great reflexes. But she should at least wear some leggings. Not that I was able to see anything since her rise in elevation was so instantaneous.

Now that I think about it, what did she mean by “Get ready”? Is she planning on helping me? How?

The girl started another descent towards the playing field and made a sharp U-turn in my direction. She then proceeded to flip herself upside down, sticking her feet into the handles of the brake cords she was operating with her hands just moments ago, and came flying straight towards me at full speed. Conveniently enough, I was also pedaling right in her direction.

Are you serious…?! I went pale as I realized what she was intending to do. It would seem that she also figured out that I realized what her plan was because the next thing she said was, “Come on, you idiot! Pedal with everything you’ve got!” She yelled out this order to me with both of her arms stretch out to the sides, making her resemble an upside-down cross. You’re the idiot! Who in their right mind would attempt a rescue like this? But there isn’t any other way… I guess I have no choice!

Giving up on thinking of any other plan, I desperately started to pedal. I forced myself to simply pedal as hard as I could. And so, this girl and I sped towards one another, the distance between us rapidly closing. I recalled seeing a similar scene in the animated movie I watched yesterday. Only in that scene the roles played by the guy and the girl were reversed. Just as I made that observation, I found myself embracing this upside-down girl and being sent soaring through the sky. It was difficult to breathe due to my face being smothered by her stomach, and from it, I could smell a sweet-and-sour fragrance reminiscent of gardenia buds…

BOOM!!

There was a flash of light and a roaring sound followed by a blast. The bicycle I abandoned had been completely and utterly destroyed.

That bomb was the real deal! With the blast of hot air blowing against us, we were freed from the paraglider, which got caught on the branch of a cherry tree, and sent tumbling through the door of a storehouse for gym equipment located in a corner of the playing field. There was a loud crash, and I don’t know what we collided into, but for an instant, I lost consciousness.

……

…………

“Ngh. Ow.”

What happened?

As far as I could tell, I had landed on my rear end and was inside some sort of small box-like object.

Where am I? I’m pretty sure I came crashing into the gym storehouse…oh, I know. I’m inside a vaulting horse.

Apparently, I knocked off the upper section on impact and fell inside the lower half. But for some reason, I don’t seem to be able to move. The fact that the inside of this vaulting horse is so narrow is certainly a factor, but aside from that, there’s something on top of me giving off a sweet-and-sour scent.

What is this? It’s so warm and soft.

My sides were sandwiched between something comfortably elastic, and something was leaning against my shoulders. There was also something rather cushiony resting atop my forehead.

“Hm?”

Pushing aside that cushiony mass with my forehead and cheeks, I suddenly became filled with astonishment to learn what it was that I had been trying to remove from on top of me.

Cute…

I almost said the words out loud in spite of myself. What I was referring to was the face of the girl—the courageous girl who had just jumped off the roof of the girls’ dormitory, battled with the Segway while hanging from a paraglider, and swept me into the air, saving my life.

“…!”

That’s when I realized that the things squeezing my sides were actually her thighs and what was leaning against my shoulders were her arms. I have no clue what could have happen to get us tangled up in this fashion, but I was currently stuck inside a vaulting horse carrying this girl in my arms.

No way. This is unreal. I have a girl way too close to me. A surge of seething blood began to well up at the core of my body.

Oh, no. I’m gonna… I’m supposed to be abstaining from this sort of thing.

“H-hey.” I tried calling out to her but there was no reply. She looked like she was sleeping, as she lay there unconscious. She had long eyelashes protruding from her eyes lids, and her pink lips, which expelled sweet-and-sour smelling breath, were as small as cherry blossom petals. Her long hair, done in twin pigtails, glistened with a glossy sheen in the light that seeped through the narrow windows.

Pink hair. That’s rare. Is this what you’d call a strawberry-blonde?

My life was about to come to an end, so I hadn’t noticed earlier, but she was cute. Very cute. She was like one of those unrealistically lovely girls you’re prone to see in fantasy movies. However . . . the type of “cute” I’m describing is similar to the impression you get from children or a doll. In fact, now that I got a good look at her up close, she really did resemble a little kid herself. Judging from her build, I’d say she was a middle school student. Then again, she might be an elementary school student who came here on the intern system that recently started. This little girl is the one who just staged that dramatic rescue operation? Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Having said that…

“Ngh.”

This girl was straddling me above the stomach and putting quite a bit of pressure on my abdomen. It was rather difficult to breathe. That being the case, I struggled to somehow change the position in which we happened to be. In doing so, my nose felt a ticklish sensation when it brushed up against her nametag. Since today was the opening ceremony, her grade and the class she’s assigned to hasn’t been filled out yet, but I could see her name. Aria H. Kanzaki.

“…?”

But why is her nametag in such a high position? Puzzled by this, I lowered my gaze.

“…Ngh!”

The blouse of this girl named Aria was lifted up all the way to her neck! It would seem as if her clothing became disheveled when we came rolling in here. As a result, her white bra, elaborately dotted with hearts, diamonds, spades—all the marks you’d find in a set of cards—was plain to see. I came to another realization when I noticed the inscription on a weird tag sticking out from the hem of the bra. The inscription read, “65A(B.” It was a push up plunge bra. A so-called “Wonderbra” as it were. If you’re wondering how I knew this, it’s because my late older brother was knowledgeable on the subject; it’s definitely not because I research the matter of my own accord. Apparently, this “Aria” was trying to make her A-cup out to be a B-cup. I did sympathize with her, but I’d have to say it was a failed attempt. I call it a failure because what the push and plunge bra had to work with was just too measly, and there was no pushing or plunging for it to do. Having said that, this was the silver lining of an otherwise ominous cloud for me. If these breasts were larger and pressed up against my face, we would have had a big problem. I would have been forced to change against my will for breaking the taboo. I would have entered “that mode.”

“Y-… Y-…,” stammered the girl.

“…?”

“You pervert!!!”

What I heard was a childish voice with a slightly nasal tone. You could describe it as the kind of voice you might hear in an anime. This voice alone would bring fans to their knees saying something along the lines of, “A voice like that coupled with that face and that figure? This is just too good to be true!”

“You-, y-y-y-you're the worst!” Aria, who had apparently woken up, was glaring at me as she quickly pulled down her blouse. What followed was a flurry of hammer punches to my head, delivered by her bent arms and not all that powerful.

“H-hey! C-cut it out!”

“You molester! Ingrate! Scum!” Aria continued to unleash punches upon the top of my head. Evidently, she thinks I’m the one who lifted up her blouse.

“I-it’s not like that! I-I didn’t–” I was trying to justify myself as I was being showered by her fists when all of a sudden–

Bratatatatat!!

A thundering sound filled the air around the storehouse.

What the-?!

Several times, I could feel the impact of something violently colliding with the vaulting horse near my back. It was just like being under fire!

“Ugh! There’s more of ‘em!” Aria peeked outside of the vaulting horse with those crimson eyes of hers and pulled two pistols out from underneath her skirt.

“More of what?!”

“Those weird two-wheelers! They’re toys being used for Butei killing!”

Butei killing? Weird two-wheelers? …Is she talking about that Segway?! That means when I felt those shocks, it wasn’t just like being under fire. We actually were under fire!

Luckily for us, at Butei High, firearms are used during P.E. as well, so the vaulting horses are also bulletproof. But what are we supposed to do, cornered in a box like this? I have no clue, and I can’t do anything about this situation. Not the way I am now.

“What is the matter with you?! Fight back! You’re a Butei High student, aren’t you?!”

“I can’t! What do you expect me to do?!”

“We’re outgunned! There’s seven of them!”

Seven? We have seven submachine guns aimed at us?! It was at that moment when something completely unexpected happened. In order to shoot at the Segways, Aria unconsciously leaned forward . . . and planted her breasts firmly in my face in the process.

Blam, blam! Blam, blam, blam!

Aria, returning fire from the gaps of the vault horse, was too busy concentrating on taking out her targets and didn’t seem to realize that her chest was pressed against my face.

Ahh. Here we go. It's all over now. “Why,” you ask? Because they were there. It didn’t look like they were there. In fact, they practically weren’t, to tell the truth. But there were the breasts of a girl. Despite being this small, they were still soft and bulging out like they should be. At this moment, I had two unbelievably soft, cute dumpling-like objects shoved in my face.

I never knew. A girl’s breasts are this soft even when they’re so small. I always figured they wouldn’t be so soft unless they were bigger and more rounded, but it looks like I was wrong. The reason I was able to make such a calm observation, given the dire situation we were in, is because I knew I already broke the rule that I had set out for myself. Sitting there taken in by Aria’s breasts, I could feel “that sensation.” That indescribable sensation like the core of my body heating up, hardening, and growing to the point of bursting. Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

My blood, hot enough to burn me from the inside, began to converge at the center of my body.

It’s going to happen.

I can’t stop it.

There it goes.

I’ve entered . . . hysteria mode!

Blam! Blam! Blam! Click.

Aria’s pistols signaled that they were out of bullets, and she stooped down to switch magazines.

“Did you finish them off?”

“I just made them fall back out my range. They’re hiding behind the row of trees . . . but I’m sure they’ll be back soon enough.

“You're a strong little one, aren’t you? That alone is quite a feat.”

“…huh?” Aria knit her brows at hearing my tone of my voice, which had suddenly become that of a cool guy.

Ah, man. I’m about to do it again, aren’t I?

My last bit of hesitation vanished in the next instant. I slipped my hands underneath Aria’s slender legs and tiny back, which easily fit in my arms, and swept her off her feet as I stood up.

“Aah!” Aria yelped in surprise.

“For your reward, I’ll give you the princess treatment just for a little while.”

Having suddenly been swept up in my arms like a princess by her knight in shining armor, Aria opened her mouth wide, exposing a pointy little feline-like tooth as her face flushed. With Aria in my arms, I placed my foot on the rim of the vaulting horse and leapt to the edge of the storehouse in a single bound. Once there, I gently sat Aria down on a pile of mats like a cherished doll.

“W-w-w-what are…?!” Aria looked at me with blinking eyes in response to the display of agile movements which I didn’t seem capable of seconds ago.

“Sit right there and relax, my princess. It’ll be enough for me to be the one doing the gun-slinging.”

What am I…? It looks like there’s no stopping me now.

“W-what’s gotten into you?! Did you lose it?!” Aria’s flustered anime character voice was immediately followed by a rally of gunshots.

Bratatatatat!!

Once again, the Uzis riddled the gym storehouse with bullets. But the walls were bullet proof and this was a dead angle. It was essentially just a waste of ammunition on their part. Smiling wryly, I walked towards the door, where their line of fire was concentrated.

“L-look out! You’re gonna get shot!”

“A much better alternative than you being the one getting shot.”

“W-w-what’s with the change of character all of a sudden?! What do you think you’re going to do?!

I turned my head halfway around and winked at Aria, whose cheeks were bright red, and was in a state of confusion.

“I’m going to protect you.”

Pulling out my matte silver Beretta M92F, I walked out the door, exposing myself to the Uzis. The seven Segways lined up on the field all fired on me simultaneously. And every one of their bullets missed their mark. Of course, they did. After all, I could see them. In my current state, I could see every single one of those bullets as if they were travelling in slow motion.

Good aim. Each one of them has its sights pointed right at my head.

I bent the upper half of my body a fair ways back diagonally, dodging the barrage. In that same position, I made a sweeping motion with my arm from left to right and fired my gun in full automatic. I knew where each bullet was headed without even having to look. The number of shots I fired was seven. I already knew that each bullet would find its way into the muzzle of an Uzi.

Blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam!

Every single Segway had its Uzi blown right off the barbette. And all it took was seven bullets. It was almost too easy. After confirming that the pile of fallen Segways were no longer operational, I made my way back into the gym storehouse. For some reason, Aria was once again inside the vaulting horse. She had the upper part of her body sticking out and an expression on her face that seemed to say, “What in the world just happened?” The second our eyes met, she scowled at me and retreated into the vaulting horse like a mole from the Whack-a-Mole game.

Uh…

I’m not sure why, but she appeared to be quite angry.

“D-don’t expect me to be thankful. I could have taken out those toys all by myself. I’m serious. I really mean it.” While putting up a bold front, Aria seemed to be wriggling around inside that vaulting horse.

She was trying to tidy up her clothing. Naturally, she was going to have a hard time, however. I noticed when I lifted her up earlier, but the hook on her skirt was broken. It must have happened after the explosion.

“A-and don’t think this makes up for what you just did to me! That was an indecent assault! A distinct criminal offence!” Aria glared at me with her crimson eyes through the hole of the vaulting horse.

“…Aria, that’s an unfortunate misunderstanding,” I said, slipping off the belt around my pants and tossing it inside the vaulting horse. “Please understand. That was completely out of my control.”

“O-out of your control?!” Aria jumped out of the vaulting horse gripping her skirt, which was held up by my belt.

Landing on her feet with a lightness that attested her small figure, she stood in front of me. She…was standing, right? She was so short that I doubted it for a second. Even if you took into consideration the horn-like hair ornaments holding her twin pigtails in place, she couldn’t have been more than one hundred and forty-five centimeters.

“Y-you…undeniably…” Aria was glaring daggers at me with that bright red face of hers. She then clenched her fists and must have been expending every effort to get the words out because when she was able to open her trembling rose-pink lips, she stamped her feet at the same time.

“W-when I was unconscious, y-you were trying to t-t-t-take off my clothes!

If it’s that embarrassing to say, then just don’t say it.

“N-n-not only that, but you were staring at my b-b-b-b…” There she goes stamping her feet again. Does she have some sort of grudge against the floor?

“You were staring at my breasts! That’s a fact! I caught you in the act of assaulting me!” Aria grew so red I thought steam was going to come shooting out of her ears, which were also red.

“What exactly were you planning on doing?! Y-y-you’d better take responsibility!” Her stamping became even more erratic.

This is certainly a fine way of stomping on one’s feet. And what does she mean by “take responsibility”?

“Okay Aria, let’s calm down. Listen to me. I’m a high school student. A second-year high school student at that. There’s no way I’m going to undress a middle school student. There’s too much of an age difference. So you don’t have anything to worry about.”

I explained it as clearly and kindly as possible, but Aria opened her mouth wide and raised both of her fists into the air. I assumed that the reason no sounds were coming out of that mouth is because she was at a loss for words. But then tears welled up in her eyes as she glowered at me.

“I’m not a middle schooler!!”

Crack!

The floor upon which she was stamping finally gave way and scattered wood chips around her feet.

This isn’t good.

My attempts to convince her of my innocence end in failure. It looks like I only succeeded in making her more furious by mistaking her age. Women are creatures with a tendency to become angry when they are thought to be older than they actually are. And this girl in particular was rather violent. At this rate, there’s going to be a large hole in the floor of this storehouse. It would probably be best to follow up with something to calm her down.

“…Sorry about that. So you're an elementary school student who came here on an internship, right? To be honest, I figured that was the case ever since you helped me out back there. But you really are something, you know that? You’re such a–”

I was about to say, “brave little girl” when Aria abruptly hung her head downward. The upper half of her face was covered in shadows and I was unable to discern what expression she might have been wearing. She then swiftly placed her left and right hand on each respective thigh.

Now, what is she up to? Busy girl, isn’t she?

“You are so… You are so… I never should have saved you!!”

Blam, Blam!

“Whoa!” I paled at two bullets, which buried themselves in the floor inches away from my feet. This girl shot at me! With both pistols!

“I’M…A…SECOND-YEAR…HIGH SCHOOOL STUDENT!!”

Out of the fire and into the frying pan—yet again.

“W-wait a sec!” I jumped at Aria, who had brought her pistols even closer to me, and pinned her thin arms underneath mine, forcing her weapons behind me.

Blam, blam, blam! Clink, clink!

Aria reflexively pulled the trigger, and the sound of bullets lodging themselves in the floor resonated. That sound was all I needed to hear. I could tell both pistols had run out of ammunition. It’s a good thing I’m in hysteria mode. If it were just the plain old me, I’d be writhing on the floor, riddled with bullets right about now. For a short while, Aria and I were locked together in that position.

“Ngh! Yaaaaaaah!” Aria yelled.

I was surprised to find my body had turned itself around, only to realize that Aria performed a maneuver similar to what’s known as a spring hip throw in Judo, and sent me flying, despite the large difference in our size.

“Whoa!”

This girl can fight empty-handed as well? She’s damn good at it too.

Barely managing to perform a break fall, I used the momentum to roll myself out of the gym storehouse.

“You can’t get away from me! I’ve never once let a fleeing criminal escape! …Huh? Wha-? Huh?” screamed Aria as she fumbled with the inside of her skirt using both of her hands.

Most likely, she was looking for the magazines with which to reload her empty pistols.

“Sorry about this.” I lifted up the spare magazine that I took out from underneath her skirt when she threw me and flung it over a distance too far for her to be able to recover any time soon.

“Ah!” she cried.

Aria watched as the magazine fell into some far off bushes and shook her now useless pistols up and down in frustration. Her movements seemed to be saying, “Now you’ve done it!”

“You’re in for it now! I won’t forgive you even if you get on your knees crying and apologize to me!”

Aria returned her pistols to their holsters and thrust her hands underneath the back of her blouse. And from within that blouse she pulled out not just one, but two katanas! Firearms, hand-to-hand combat, and now katanas?! I was dumbfounded. But that didn’t stop Aria from pouncing at me with the leg strength I would have thought humans were incapable of. Those katanas, not as long as traditional Japanese swords, were zeroing in on my shoulders like two shooting stars. I managed to roll backwards and narrowly avoided losing my arms.

“You molester! Give up and– Uwaaaah!” Aria, who had charged at me, let out a cry like a new breed of wildcat. She then fell over backwards as if some invisible person had grabbed her from behind and performed a back suplex. Spread around her feet were bullets I had taken out of her magazine. I scattered them on the ground when her attention was on the magazine I threw.

“W-why you– Uwaaaah!”

When Aria tried to get up, she stepped on another bullet and fell back with such force that her legs practically went straight up into the air. It was like something you’d see in a comic book. While she was still on the ground, I decided to take the opportunity to get out of there as fast as I could. Aria has fighting abilities far greater than those of an average person. But at this moment, anger and shame were causing her to lose composure. I, on the other hand, was in “hysteria mode.” I would have been able to escape even if there were a hundred FBI agents targeting me. That’s what I was thinking to myself as I left Aria behind, paying no attention to her outbursts.

“You coward! I’m gonna open a giant hole in you!”

Such was the first encounter between me, Kinji Tohyama, and the demon Butei feared by criminals worldwide as “Aria the Scarlet Ammo”, Aria H. Kanzaki—filled with the smell of gun powder and a complete disaster.