Aria the Scarlet Ammo (novel), Volume 1

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Aria the Scarlet Ammo (novel), Volume 1 Page 15

by Chugaku Akamatsu


  “Kinji, I heard this from the guys at Connect, but apparently that plane had just been flying in circles above Sagami Bay. Right now, you’re flying above the Uraga Channel. Head back to Haneda. Considering the distance to other airports, that’s you’re only option.”

  “That was my intention all along,” said Aria.

  “…ANA flight six hundred, how are you piloting the plane? Make sure you don’t take it off of autopilot.”

  “The autopilot went off-line a long time ago. I’m piloting the plan right now.”

  Aria looked at the section of the instrument board where a red light that read ‘Autopilot’ was flashing, accompanied by a warning tone that beeped at the same tempo. I didn’t know the details, but Aria was probably right.

  “…that being the case, I’d appreciate it if you’d tell me how to land.”

  “…it’s not the sort of thing an amateur can become capable of doing right on the spot… Currently, we’re preparing to engage in emergency communications with the nearby aircrafts in the area. We’ll try to find a captain with a long history of flying the same model plane…”

  “There’s no time,” I interjected. “I want you to open communications between us and every other aircraft in the vicinity. Can you do it?”

  “W-Well, yes, that’s possible, but…what do you plan on doing?”

  “I’m going to divide them up and have all of them explain to me at the same time the different procedures required to land this plane. Muto, you help out too.”

  “At the same time?! Kinji, you’re not Prince Shoutoku!”

  “I can do it. In my current state, I can do it. Could you be quick about it? We don’t much time, after all.”

  I noticed Aria looking at me with an expression of surprise on her face. She looked like she was about to say something, so I silenced her with a wink of my eye and returned my gaze to the front of the plane. Flying under the clouds, through the raging rainstorm, I could see the lights of Tokyo coming into view beyond the black ocean. We were headed straight for the lights as if we were on a collision course to Tokyo.

  Listening to eleven people speak at once, I instantly understood how to land the plane. Now I was able to read all the gauges on the instrument board. We were currently at an altitude of one thousand feet; that was around three hundred meters. It was a dangerous altitude to be flying at no matter how you looked at it, but since we would only remain airborne for ten more minutes, we couldn’t afford to waste a single drop of fuel, so I didn’t dare to climb even one meter higher. As we approached the airspace above Yokosuka, we heard a deep voice come from the speaker connected to Haneda.

  “ANA flight six hundred, this is the Ministry of Defense, Aviation Administration.”

  Aria and I exchanged glances.

  The Ministry of Defense…?

  “You are not granted permission to use Haneda Airport. The airport is currently being blockaded by the Self-Defense Force.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?!”

  The person who yelled was neither Aria nor I. It was Muto.

  “Who is this?” demanded the deep voice.

  “I’m Goki Muto, a Butei! Flight six hundred is leaking fuel! They can only fly for ten more minutes! There’s nowhere for them to make a diverted landing! Haneda is their only option!

  “Butei Muto, yelling at me isn’t going to get you anywhere. This is an order from the Minister of Defense.”

  I felt an unsettling presence and looked to the side of us. Aria followed my gaze outside the window and I heard her catch her breath. Right outside of the plane, an F-15J Eagle, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s fighter jet, was flying right next to us.

  “Hey, Ministry of Defense. I can see one of your friends outside the window…”

  “…He’s there to guide you. Follow him out to sea and head for Chiba. He’ll take you to a safe landing zone.”

  Aria rotated the hand wheel to the right and starting turning the plane towards the ocean. As I disconnected the line to Haneda, I placed my hand on top of Aria’s, stopping her.

  “…Don’t head out to sea, Aria. That guy was lying.”

  “?”

  “The Ministry of Defense doesn’t think we can land safely. Once we’re over the ocean, we’ll be shot down.”

  “Y-You can’t be serious…! It’s not just us; there are civilians on this plane as well!”

  “If we crash land in Tokyo it’ll be a big disaster. They’re desperate.”

  My hand still on top of Aria’s, I turned the wheel to the left and had the plane head towards Yokohama.

  “K-Kinji?” With her fingers somewhat stiffened, Aria looked up at me anxiously. It was a look that said I was being depended on.

  “If that’s how they’re going to be, then we’ll respond respectively and take hostages. Aria, fly over the city.”

  ANA flight six hundred flew over Yokohama Minatomirai and into the Tokyo metropolitan area. There were seven minutes of fuel remaining.

  “So where do you plan on landing, Kinji? There’s no other airstrip in this city.”

  “Muto, how long of an airstrip would we need?”

  “For a B737-350 with two engines…I’d say about two thousand four hundred and fifty meters.”

  “…do you know what the wind speed is over there?

  “Wind speed? Reki, what’s the wind speed at Academy Island?”

  “My sense is that five minutes ago, it was forty-one point zero two meters per second heading south-southeast.”

  I heard the voice of Reki from Snipe in the background.

  “In that case, Muto, how long would the airstrip need to be if we came down against a wind speed of forty-one meters per second?”

  “…I guess…two thousand and fifty meters would do it.”

  “…Just enough,” I whispered to myself, and both Muto and Aria went silent for a moment.

  “W-Where do you intend to land?” asked Aria. “There’s no straightaway like that in Tokyo.”

  “Remember the way the Mega-Float that Butei High lies on is shaped? It’s a rectangle two kilometers from north to south and five hundred meters from west to east. If we go in at a diagonal, we can secure two thousand and sixty-one meters.”

  “H-Hey…” Muto sounded concerned.

  “Don’t worry, Muto. We’re not gonna come down on Academy Island.”

  “…?”

  “We’ll use Empty Island. There is another Mega-Float to the north, on the other side of Rainbow Bridge.”

  “Dude, you’re…How do you come up with these outrageous ideas? Is that really you, Kinji?”

  “Haha…Aria, who’s sitting right next to you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Go ahead and answer.”

  This is no time to be teasing Aria, hysteria mode Kinji, I reprimanded myself.

  But Aria just gave another demonstration of how susceptible she was to blushing. Her indignant eyes began to open wide, and she looked like she was going to make an objection, but it probably dawned on her that I was the leader taking charge at the moment. The proud little princess turned away from me and answered.

  “Kinji.”

  She said it ungraciously with the attitude of a child who surrendered to an adult.

  “There you have it, Muto. I wish I could be elsewhere though.”

  The night view of Shibuya and Harajuku passed by directly underneath us. Everyone in the city must be pretty startled.

  “The Mega-Float…In theory, it’s doable…” Muto replied with a sigh.

  The hardened expression on Aria’s face suddenly lightened up.

  “But you know, Kinji,” Muto continued. “That place is really just a floating island. It doesn’t even have guidance lights, let alone any guidance systems. Regardless of the type of plane, even in the worst situation, at the very least, you need guidance lights or you can’t make a nighttime landing. Not to mention your vision is gonna be horrible due to the heavy rain; plus, there’s a
windstorm. Add to that the fact that you’re going to be landing manually–”

  “Well then, Aria, do you wanna give up on landing and commit suicide with me?” I interrupted Muto’s lecture and asked Aria.

  “I-I refuse to commit suicide with you even if it kills me.”

  Aria made somewhat of a contradictory statement and stuck her tongue out at me.

  “Haha. This is a happy occasion. Our opinions matched for the first time.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m against committing a double suicide myself. I refuse to let you die.”

  Aria ducked her head down and turned red again, looking as if she was thinking something along the lines of, “Why do have to go and say things like that?!”

  “That’s the situation, Muto. This plane is going start making preparations to land.”

  “Wait! Wait, Kinji! Empty Island is wet with rain! You won’t be able to stop in time with two thousand and fifty meters!”

  “I’ll do something about it. Have faith in me.”

  “D-Do whatever you want! Screw this up and I’m gonna run you over!”

  He must have gone berserk because before he hung up, I could hear him yelling at everyone else in the classroom.

  Nearly grazing the skyscrapers of Shinjuku, ANA flight six hundred made a wide turn to the right. There were three minutes remaining. Needing to reduce speed in order to land on a short runway, flight six hundred flew over Tokyo Dome and soared past Tokyo Station and a rainy Ginza at an annoyingly relaxed pace.

  “Aria, this plane is flying lower than Tokyo Tower. Make sure you don’t crash into it.

  “Don’t take me for an idiot.”

  Aria extended the landing gears and transferred the main controls to the co-pilot seat where I was.

  Okay, Tokyo Bay is coming into view. I should be seeing the Mega-Float any time now…

  But my brain, being in hysteria mode, came up with the conclusion right away. We had done our best up to this point, but landing the plane…was impossible. I couldn’t see even a trace of Empty Island. Just like Muto had said, past Shiodome, Tokyo Bay was shrouded in darkness. There were no guidance lights or anything, so it fell to reason. I knew it would be dark, but to think it would be this dark… The way things stood, I had no idea what angle to land at or how high I was flying. Under these circumstances, not even a veteran pilot would be able to avoid a disaster. I had no choice but to change my way of thinking and come up with a method to crash land that would result in the fewest casualties. Aria’s sixth sense must have told her that’s what was going through my mind.

  “Kinji. It’s okay. I know you can do it. You have to. If you want to quit being a Butei, dying as a Butei would mean defeat. And you’re not the only one. I still haven’t saved my mom!!”

  As Aria was speaking to me, just like magic…

  “I can’t afford to die yet! There’s no way I’m going to die in a place like this!”

  …lights became visible on Empty Island in front of Bay Bridge…!

  “Kinji! Are you seeing this, you damned idiot?!

  The line connecting us to Muto became active again, and I heard his voice along with the heavy rain splattering on the windshield.

  “Muto?!”

  “If you die, Shirayu-…I mean, there are people who are gonna be in tears! I stole the biggest motorboat they had at Logi! We all brought Armed’s (Equipment Division) Maglites out here without permission, too! You be sure to write everyone’s apology letters for them after this is over!”

  Following Muto’s complaints, a third party and a fourth party, one after another, people’s voices came through on the line between Muto and me.

  “Kinji!”

  “I can see the plane!”

  “You’re almost there!”

  “Hang in there just a little longer!”

  Being in hysteria mode, I could tell. These voices. It was them. They were the students Aria and I rescued during the bus-jacking…! They had crossed over to Empty Islands from Academy Island and were making guidance lights for us!

  Butei Charter, Article One, “Believe in your comrades and help one another.” I carefully lowered the plane’s altitude and made my way down—down to the island to which they led us…!

  Screeeeeeeeeeeeech!

  ANA flight six hundred went through with its forced landing on the rain beaten Mega-Float. Enduring oscillations that seemed strong enough to make the eyes come out of one’s sockets, Aria activated the reverse thrusters.

  “Stop, stop, stop, stop, stoooooooop!!”

  “Here we gooooo!” I yelled in tune with Aria’s high-pitched anime voice.

  I quickly maneuvered the steering wheel used for taxiing the plane and made it curve. It would take more than two thousand and fifty meters for the plane to stop on a runway wet with rain. Muto was right about that. But I had a plan. I had come down on the Mega-Float prepared to initiate that plan. It was coming up ahead—the pillar of a wind turbine generator…!

  Crash!

  I steered the plane so that its wing collided with the pillar and swung around it, sending the plane spinning as it slid. Inside the cockpit, Aria and I were tossed about like clothes in a washing a machine.

  …

  “Ngh…owww…”

  I smell…gardenias. Oh, right. This is Aria’s scent.

  Suffering from the pain that I felt throughout my entire body, I opened my eyes. Outside the window, I could see Rainbow Bridge. ANA flight six hundred…had come to a stop. Everything was as close a call as it could have been, but somehow, it worked out. But…for some reason, I was unable to move. At that point, I already knew to expect the situation that Aria and I were fated to end up in. Just as I predicted, I was sitting in a reclined co-pilot’s seat with Aria lying on top of me. Aria was unconscious and had her legs around my waist, her arms over my shoulders, and her pretty face resting on top of my head.

  “Haha…”

  I slowly looked down towards her upper body…and there was no problem. Her blouse wasn’t lifted up.

  Looks like I’ll get out of this without being shot at this time.

  Or at least, that’s what I thought for the next three seconds. While Aria’s blouse may have been in order, her skirt was completely turned up.

  “…!”

  I quickly averted my eyes. Then, without looking and careful not to wake Aria up, I gently fixed her skirt for her.

  That should do it.

  I managed to survive after nearly being killed for seeing the top half. I sure as hell wasn’t going to be marked for assassination again for seeing the bottom half. Can you blame me?

  Final Bullet La Bambina dal’ARIA…

  Anyways, I slept like a log at the hospital, and when I woke up, it had all been a dream. Such was the conclusion I was hoping for, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The evidence was the pain all over my body. Considering there were twelve areas on my body, which consisted of bruises, abrasions, and sprains, I guess it made sense that I was in pain. This was reality—quite different from the way things worked in comics or the movies.

  At the moment, I was looking at the night view of Tokyo from the balcony of my quiet apartment. One of the wind turbine generators on Empty Island was bent, and underneath it was a B737-350 waiting to be dismantled.

  Aw, man. I went and ruined the scenery I liked so much.

  “I never thought I’d see such a beautiful starry sky in Tokyo,” said Aria.

  “It’s that whole ‘clear weather after a typhoon’s passing’ thing.”

  Aria and I were speaking on the balcony under a sky filled with countless stars. Today was a hell of a day, what with questioning by the police and interviews for television. It had gotten this late before I could finally get back home to this apartment. For some reason, Aria came with me though.

  “…My mom’s trial date got pushed back,” Aria said while gazing out at Empty Island. “This latest incident proved that the charges against her for the ‘But
ei killings’ were false. Her lawyer said the Supreme Court trial would be postponed until further notice.”

  “I see.”

  The situation didn’t really call for a ‘Congratulations’, so that was all I replied with. After looking at the B737 with its broken wing, Aria turned towards me.

  “Tell me, why…did you get on that plane and come to my aid?”

  “Why?” Don't ask me questions that I don’t know the answer to myself.

  “…well, because I figured that being the idiot you are you wouldn’t be able to defeat the ‘Butei killer.’”

  “I-It wasn’t that big of a deal…I could have handled it on my own. You’re the idiot.” “Yeah, I guess. I might be an idiot for saving an idiot like you.” I put my elbows on top of the balcony wall and let out a fairly deep sigh. Aria blinked those big eyes of hers and after hesitating a bit, spoke up again.

  “Sorry. That was a lie.”

  “What was?”

  “The part about being able to handle it on my own.”

  She said it with a sigh and started talking in a subdued fashion, which was rare for Aria.

  “You know, when we were up there in that plane…I figured it out. I understood why I need a partner. There are some things I can’t resolve by myself. If you weren’t there, I’m sure I would have…”

  “…”

  “…That’s why I came to say goodbye today.”

  “…Goodbye?”

  “I’m going to go and find a partner after all. The truth is…I wish it could be you, but a promise is a promise.”

  “Promise?”

  “Just one case. We promised, didn't we?”

  “Oh…yeah.”

  Now that she mentions it, we did promise that. I return to Assault and pair up with Aria—just once. It only lasts until the Butei killer case is resolved.

  “Butei Charter, Article Two, ‘Fulfill the contract made with your clients at all costs.’ So I won’t come after you anymore.”

  Aria was becoming less and less resolute. She continued to repeatedly make up her mind to say something, only to decide against it again until she finally looked me straight in the eyes once more.

 

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