Aria the Scarlet Ammo (novel), Volume 1

by Chugaku Akamatsu

  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.

&n
bsp; “…!”

  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.