Hidan no Aria - Volume 1

In short, I was sent to the hospital where I slept like a log, hoping that after I woke up, I would realize that it was all a dream.

But the reality wasn’t at all like what I hoped. Because I was aching all over.

On 12 spots on my body, I had gotten bruises, scratches, and sprains. This was totally unlike the hero waking up in manga or in movies.

And now–

I was standing in the balcony of my own room, looking at the nighttime skyline of Tokyo.

The one wind turbine on “Empty Island” was a little bit bent, and directly under, the totaled Boeing 737-350.

Ah. This scene that I loved so much, was destroyed by me, in the end.

“I never thought that we’d be able to see such a starry sky in Tokyo.”

“This is what it’s like after a typhoon, you know.”

That was Aria and I talking, below the starry sky.

First, we had to do a report for the Police, then we were interviewed by countless reporters…only now, could I finally return to my room.

But Aria, for some reason, followed me.

“Mother’s…trial, was postponed.”

said Aria, looking out towards Empty Island.

“The incident this time proves that the ‘Butei Killer’ is the guilty one…according to the lawyers, the trial may be postponed for over a year.”

“Is that so?”

Although this kind of atmosphere really isn’t one where I can congratulate her, I still returned a sentence.

Aria, seeing the remains of the Boeing 737-350, turned towards me.

“Hey. Why did you…chase me to the plane, to save me?”

…Why, you ask?

This kind of…

…question that I don’t even know the answer to…Don’t ask me this.

“…Well, I thought that since you were such an idiot, you would have no way of beating the ‘Butei Killer,” so I went.”

“Th-that person…I could’ve taken care of her by myself. You’re the real idiot.”

“Well, that’s true. I’m an idiot for saving an idiot like you.”

I leaned my elbow against the railing, and said that with a sigh.

Aria lightly blinked and she said…

“I’m sorry, I was lying.”

“About what?”

“When I said, I could’ve taken care of her by myself.”

Aria sighed, and she said in a voice that I had never heard her use before,

“About that. In the sky…I, understand now. I understand why I need a ‘partner’. I also understand, there are things that I can’t do by myself. If you weren’t there, I would definitely…”

“…”

“–So today, I came to say goodbye.”

“…goodbye?”

“I still have to find a partner. I…would prefer it if you were my partner, but we had an agreement.”

“An agreement?”

“We agreed that you would help me only once, remember?”

“Ah, that’s right…”

Now that I think about it, we did have an agreement like that.

Until we completely solved the case of the Butei Killer.

“Butei Law article 2. You must fulfill the contract in the commission. So, I won’t approach you again.”

Aria said, swaying. She opened her mouth several times, but she decided against saying anything. Finally, she looked at me gravely.

“…Kinji. You’re an amazing Butei. So now, I will respect your decision, and I won’t…call you a slave anymore. So…if you ever change your mind…then, come find me. But remember, I will definitely have you as my…”

Aria seemed to still have hopes that I would be her partner, but I–

“…sorry.”

turned my head away automatically.

I don’t want to be a Butei.

And Nii-san’s shadow is still–

To tell the truth, I’ve had enough of dangerous situations like that.

“Do-don’t worry about it. Since you aren’t trying to hurt me. Well see, in the end…I am an Aria. What I said just now, forget about it.”

Aria, saying that, turned around. I don’t know if it was because she was cold, but she strode into the room.

“–Ah! The April I spent here in Tokyo was horrible! I didn’t manage to find a partner, my head was hurt, and I was unable to even grab a stuffed animal for myself!”

Looking at Aria, who was pretending that everything was fine, I thought…

I have to at least smile when sending her off, so I went back in as well and smiled.

“If…we ever meet again, I’ll teach you how to grab a stuffed animal for yourself. But, a lot of that is intuition.”

“What does that mean. Are you saying my intuition is bad?”

Aria put her hands on her hips and stared at me.

“If you dare look down on me, I’ll make some holes in you! I’ll make 10…no, I’ll make you into a piece of Swiss cheese!”

She said, sticking out her tongue, laughing.

I laughed along with her.

I’m not sure what was so funny, but just like that, together, we laughed.

I escorted Aria to the door, and watched her put on her shoes.

“Ah, is it this late already?…I have to go now.”

“Do you have plans already?”

“Yeah. There’s someone coming to pick me up. After all that happened…the London Butei Department is sending one of their helicopters in Tokyo to pick me up.”

London Butei Department.

That’s where Aria works as a Butei.

“Before Mother was arrested, I was an exceptional Butei there. So everybody there wants me to come back, so I can cover for their uselessness. However…I want to take the opportunity to recover.”

“Go back…to London?”

“Yeah. The helicopter will send me to a British aircraft carrier, and from there I’ll take a jet fighter back.”

A jet fighter… That’s way over the top. As expected of nobility.

“…It would be good if you could find a partner.”

“I’ll definitely find one. Because of you, I know that there’s one ‘somewhere in the world’.”

“Is that so…that’s right. Goodbye. Good luck.”

“Yeah. Bye bye.”

Aria lightly opened the door…and went outside.

I didn’t stop her.

The door, closed again.

Now…it’s all over…right.

… …

“…?”

Aria’s footsteps never came.

To leave, she needs to either take the elevator or the stairs.

I thought that it was a little weird, so I looked outside through the peephole…

“…Uu…Uuu…Uu….Uuuu….”

Aria was crying in front of my door.

“I don’t…Kinji, I don’t…there won’t be…anyone like you…there definitely…won’t. I won’t…be able to find anyone…”

She continued to wipe away the tears streaming down her face as she said this.

…Aria.

Why…are you crying?

Weren’t you smiling just now?

Weren’t you laughing, so happily?

So now.

Why are you crying…

Aria.

But in the end, I still didn’t open the door.

Because I felt…if I opened it, my life would change again.

I sat down heavily on the sofa, holding my head in my hands.

I’ll just pretend I never saw her tears.

If I do, everything will be solved.

That’s right, Kinji. Just remember. If she’s by your side, troublesome things will appear like a plague. Isn’t it better if she leaves?

That’s right, Kinji. Open your drawer. Take the application for leaving Butei High. That’s right. Good job. It’s been too hectic to hand it in recently, but you should go put it in the inbox at Masters now.

If you do, you’ll be able to enter a normal school, and go to a normal university. You can be a salaryman, and you can live that normal life you’ve always wanted.

The…more I thought like this…

Aria grew…in my head…and in my heart.

Aria. Aria. She appeared in my life like a typhoon, and messed up my life. And now, she leaves, exactly like she came. A gust of wind.

…What is she?

I thought that if she left, I’d be at peace…

But why do I feel so empty.

Is it that small, cute girl’s tears that are holding me captive? That’s not possible.

The leopon on my cellphone–I don’t know why, but it seemed as if it was crying.

“Damn it. Kinji…what are you thinking. Stop, stop!”

I screamed at myself.

I had thought this many times before…that reckless and fearless Aria, was a girl exactly like a lion cub.

But, she isn’t a lion.

She’s just a…lost kitten.

One that left home, and doesn’t know where to go. It doesn’t know who its friends are. It fights with crows and dogs until it’s full of wounds. In the end, it still doesn’t know what to do. It can only hide in a trash can by the river and yelp…

That…kitten.

“Aria…”

I tightly gripped the leopon attached to my cellphone.

If Aria wants to save her mother–Kanae-san, the “Butei Killer” won’t be her only enemy. She will have to fight a crowd of them.

In this world, as filthy as a trash can, she will have to fight, and fight, and fight until she is covered in blood from head to toe…Aria.

Is this really all right?

Until the last, she still calls herself an Aria.

Aria, is that really all right?

The inexperienced you, the one that the Holmes family looks on as a defect–

Do you really think that it’s fine to be an Aria!?

“Of course it isn’t fine. You yourself know, Kinji.”

I am–the same as her, a defect of the Tohyama.

So there’s no way I could be an ally of justice.

But…but.

–If I only need to be her ally, I can do it.

I sucked in a mouthful of air.

The room still had traces of Aria’s scent.

The one like Gardenia…that sweet, sweet, sweet scent.

“It’s so sweet…so innocent. Kinji, you really are a…naive bastard! Fuck!”

Shouting at myself, with a ripping noise, I tore the application in two.

Aria had left my room for over half an hour already.

There are no buses this late. My bicycle was blown to pieces. So I could only run, like the bastard that I was, running towards the helipad at Butei High’s girl’s dormitory.

The helicopter was on the roof.

The rotors were turning, giving me the feeling that it was about to take off.

And even worse, the elevator was going up.

I flew up the stairs, trying to make it to the roof.

Running all the way from the boy’s dormitory at the southern tip of the island, to the girl’s dormitory, at the northern tip of the island, and then continuing to run upwards…my heart was about to explode.

She really knows how to get to me.

My whole body dripping with sweat, already out of breath, I struggled to breathe through the strong wind.

But, I have to stop her.

I have to stop her.

I hate Butei. I hate Butei High. I hate girls. I hate Hysteria Mode. That still hadn’t changed.

But, more than that, I…hate that I’ve become a piece of trash that can’t even stop Aria’s tears!

To change schools, there is still half a year left. The application that I had torn up, could still be rewritten.

But, well, right now, I just have to–

I just have to run a little more!

Bang!

When I threw open the door–I was too late–the helicopter had already risen off the roof about 10 meters, with a howl.

“ARIA!!”

I yelled.

My mind was completely blank.

YELL!

“ARIA! ARIA!!”

I couldn’t breathe.

Yet I continued to shout with all I had.

I shouted with everything that I had, I roared!

“ARIAAAA!!”

The enormous wind pressure from the helicopter’s rotors messed up my hair.

My shirt, my pants were almost ripping from the enormous pressure.

The sound of the helicopter probably overshadows mine.

Even though that’s the case, I still have to shout!

–ARIA! ARIA! ARIA–!

Slam!

The door of the helicopter burst open with surprising momentum.

“Kinji you idiot! You’re late!”

Aria stuck her head out, and like that she–!

hooked her cable to the side of the helicopter, and jumped down in the midst of the heavy wind!

“You….wait!”

Although there’s a cable slowing her down, Aria’s speed was almost exactly like in freefall.

I’m not sure whether it was because the pilot, shocked, had made a mistake, but the helicopter shook…Aria swung like a pendulum.

“–U? Uwaah!? Kyaaa!?”

“….Ah, Hey! Wa…!”

To catch Aria, I continued to back up, and with a *Clink!* I smashed into the fence on the roof.

And at that moment, Aria cut the cable and rushed down towards me–

–Do you think that girls should really fall from the sky?–

–When my face had gone pale.

“–!”

CHIII—-!

The impact of me catching Aria bent the fence behind me.

We staggered back onto the roof from the, now, trampoline-like fence.

Phew. If we were unlucky, we would have fallen off the roof.

“You….you!”

“Aria! What are you doing!”

Following my call, a foreigner called up from the helicopter.

That was probably one of the members of the London Butei Section.

“Kuuh”

Aria, whose twin tails had been completely messed up by the wind pressure, made a face at the helicopter.

…They were provoked by this, weren’t they?

Several Butei deployed their cables and dropped to the roof.

London Butei Section. They want to bring Aria away. They want to bring her back to England as their tool.

So when Aria, who said she’d go back with them, tries to escape, they’ll obviously be extremely confused.

Although that’s the case…the situation is still extremely bad.

They have too many people. At this rate, Aria will still be brought away.

I have to think of something…!

But, I, who isn’t in Hysteria Mode right now, can’t really…

No, I have to. Don’t make excuses. I have to find something that I can do while not in Hysteria Mode!

“Aria.”

“What?”

“Do they still have cables?”

“Only the ones they are using to come down. There were none inside the helicopter.”

said Aria, holding up her guns.

“Don’t fire, Aria. They’re foreigners. If you hurt them, things will get a lot more complicated.”

“…then what do we do?”

Now that you say that…

I determinedly ran towards the exit of the roof.

Clink Clank! Two guns, the new Berettas, broke the lock.

Good, I’m fine if you break it. They won’t be able to get away from here now.

“Wh-why did you seal our only exit!”

I chuckled, turning my head towards the angry Aria.

My expression must have been pretty bad reassurance.

“I’m sorry Aria. The me right now, can only do this.”

“?”

“You…because of me, jumped off here.”

That was when I was getting bike-jacked by the “Butei Killer.”

Aria.

For me, you jumped off the roof of the girl’s dormitory.

You jumped for me.

“Aria. The me right now, who can’t do anything, is the real me.”

“…?”

“–But as thanks for saving my life, the me right now can still do this!”

Come Aria!

Do you realize it now!

If you want a piece of trash like me as your partner, we’re going to have to blunder our way like this!

I ran towards the fence, which had changed shape.

“Kinji!?”

Aria followed me.

“Aria! You’re an Aria! That’s right! That’s the way it is! But!”

I used the trampoline-like fence as a…trampoline.

“I’ll be your background music!!”

I yelled–

As if jumping up to grasp that full moon, I soared.

–How is it?

I’m awesome, right?

Right now, how did we get into this situation?

The cable in my belt that I had hooked to the fence, slowed my falling speed.

Aria, wearing a beautiful dress, jumped with me, and we held each other in the air–

Bounce!

Aria and I fell onto the plastic greenhouse below.

I thought that the plastic would act like rubber and redirect our energy, but with a *Crack!* we caved through the roof.

“…Ow…Ouch…”

“Ki…Kinji you idiot…!”

I really did blunder through this.

Just like in manga, Aria and I were seeing stars.

Aria stood up unsteadily and said,

“Wh-what was that! Are you in Idiot Kinji Mode…?”

Hearing that, my face twitched. Although she doesn’t seem to completely know, but it seems that another person knows my secret.

The searchlight on the helicopter shone on the greenhouse.

That circular light caught us in it’s brilliant beam.

Exactly like in an opera.

“Kinji.”

Aria’s camellia eyes looked at me.

Sitting on the floor, I looked up at Aria.

“You, through some conditions, are able to activate some special power to raise your abilities.”

“…”

“I’m not really sure what those conditions are. You’re unable to control this power yourself.”

“…”

“But, I was thinking. Since that’s the way it is, I’ll teach you to be able to use it at any time! That’s right! It should be simple! Right!?”

“Wa…! Physically…it might be possible, but morally, no way!”

“Real men should only speak 2 sentences!”

“I’ve hardly even said one!”

“Shut up, shut up! You are going to be my partner, the partner of a ‘H’ as great as my great-grandfather! This is already decided!”

“Wh…what is that ‘H’–!”

“You still don’t understand!? I can’t believe this! Idiot, idiot! You big idiot! You’re in the Guinness World Records for idiocy! You’re the general of all idiots!”

Hey…that’s kind of over the top.

“Aaah, really! Since you’ve decided to be my partner, then I’ll tell you my name!”

Aria said, her hands on her hips, thrusting forward her eternally flat chest. She then announced,

“Kanzaki Holmes Aria!”

“Hol-mes…!?”

“That’s right! I am Sherlock Holmes the 4th! So, you have already been chosen as my partner, J. H. Watson! I won’t let you escape! If you dare run away again–”

Wait, wait.

Wait a second!

“–I’ll make a hole in you!!”