Hidan no Aria - Volume 4

“……Kin……ji……”

Leaving the pyramid, lying on the inclined head of the Annbelle, Aria’s voice—

Made me, Kana and Shirayuki turn towards her.

“Aria……!”

“Ah……Kin……Kinji? Why are you still alive?”

Is it a sin that I’m living?

I may have thought that for a moment, but the me who was still in Hysteria mode……

“Aria!”

Couldn’t help but hug that small body.

“Wait-……uh! Kin, Kinji!? You, you-you-you, what are you doing!? Wait!”

Aria. Aria. That’s great!

Since she was wearing the same clothes as Patra from just before, which looks like a swimsuit, I hesitated about whether I should hug her—but now, Shirayuki had already arrived, helping her wear the Butei’s bullet-proof vest.

So I can, without hesitation, hug her.

Please let me, hold you tight like this—

Tsa!

……It hurts!

It-it looks like something stabbed my butt.

I held my butt and twisted my head around, shaa. It felt as if something like the blade of a katana had disappeared from my view’s blind spot…

“Aria, it’s really great that you’re OK!”

Said Shirayuki, *pa*, and she tightly embraced Aria as well.

And then Shirayuki shoved me away from Aria, who had no memory of how she defeated Patra just a while ago, making a perplexed countenance,

Ha. Haha.

Kana, who had arranged her braided hair, chuckled slightly, seeing this scene.

……Well……

……Although, there are things that I mind……

But, Aria, is saved.

Also, Patra is also shut in the coffin,

Though I feel that there was too much trouble, but it would be enough for my grades passing.

This time it could count—as an accomplished mission.

And finally, I can patiently wait for the Buteis coming here. Meanwhile, I can do some sunbathing.

……As I was looking at the butterfly knife which has already lost its radiance, I sighed.

–Haa.

Kana, suddenly looked towards the sea.

“…………!”

Like that, speechlessly, she was contemplating the sea.

As if, she was seeking for something.

That face—became abnormally white.

It was the first time that I saw that. Kana, she would shake that much—

“……Kana?”

I put back my dagger and called her, but Kana ignored me.

As if she was, by the sea,

Nailed there.

“——Kinji……Quickly run away!”

Kana……started yelling.

This itself, made me think it’s unbelievable.

What’s happening to you?

What has just happened to you, Kana.

You, that you would scream at me with that tone, and would be that frenetic.

This kind of thing, when we were living together, it didn’t even happen once!

“Quickly run away, Kinji! Quickly retreat from here!”

With Kana, who is furiously shaking my sleeve, I couldn’t help but have a cold sweat.

Wait! Please wait! Kana! You want us to retreat, but we don’t even have a boat.

Kana, she is at this stage of chaos.

That Kana. Even Patra wasn’t a worthy opponent against the invincible Kana. That same Kana is all messed up.

“Kin……Kin-chan……!”

After that, the one who understood that expression change was Shirayuki.

“There……there is something that’s coming…s-scary……!”

Shirayuki let Aria go, and looked as if she was strongly holding herself——

The whole body was trembling, and fell kneeling on the ground.

I looked towards the sunny sky and sea behind Shirayuki—and discovered it.

Abnormal.

The sea——was very abnormal.

The bunch of whales before, there isn’t a single one remaining.

No, this isn’t the only thing. Even the birds’ and the fishes’ breaths were not here anymore.

As if——

It’s as if the animals in a great savanna felt the king of animals approaching, and then all fled——

“Ah……Aha……!”

Kana tried to not let herself scream, and shut her mouth with her hands.

Shaa……

Shashashasha……

That quake——looked like an earthquake on the sea.

The entire Annbelle boat was shaking.

No——it’s the entire sea——that is shaking……!

“——It’s from there, Kinji!”

Aria, who the more dangerous the situation is, the more courage she has, ran to the tip of the boat which was pointed towards the sea.

Me too, I ran to Aria’s side.

What Aria was pointing at, was the thing in front of the Annbelle a few hundreds of meters in the sea——it started to bulge.

The sea, has been lifted.

——That——how can it be!

SSSHHHLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAA!

As the seawater fell down from the waterfall (T/L: or falls), the thing that became visible under the midsummer’s sunshine— wasn’t——a whale.

It wasn’t even that kind of small existence. It’s ten times larger compared to a 30-meter long great white adult Balaenoptera physalus, a black metal body, emerged from the sea!

The waves, made the Annbelle look like a fallen leaf waving around.

Aria and I seized the boat head’s chain, trying to not fall down.

That large body which had walls glowing dark lights——

In front of the Annbelle, became larger and larger, while approaching towards here.

As if it was a view of a great building from a close distance, that thing which is too great, it simply couldn’t let people have the full view of that.

But, I’m sure that that this is a man-made thing.

I understood this——is painted on that great body, at least two-meters big, “I-U”, passing in front of my eyes.

These two letters which leisurely passed in front of my eyes, the white “I” “U”——

Made the me in Hysteria mode suddenly understand as if I was hit by an explosion.

I saw the auxiliary history textbooks before.

I. ——That, is Japan’s secret code to designate a submarine in the past.

U. ——This, is also Germany’s secret code to designate a submarine.

I-U. Its hidden form, is that, submarine!

Its great rotation let the Annbelle look at its shipping space. The submarine looked overall over 300 meters long——I, know.

Though I don’t really understand submarines……but this warship’s shape, I’ve already seen this before.

“The Vostok……!”

It is the model which Muto was playing with these times, the greatest nuclear submarine in history.

The one that had gone missing after it got dismantled——after the nuclear submarine tragedy, SS Great Eastern.

“……You have seen it, haven’t you……”

Said Kana, who was lying down on the Annbelle’s deck.

“Right, this——has been named in the past as the SS Great Eastern……a strategic nuclear submarine carrying nuclear missiles. SS Great Eastern, hasn’t sunk though. It has been stolen away by the man who possesses the greatest brain in history, the ‘Professor’.

After the rotation had finished, the nuclear submarine stopped——on the bridge, a man appeared——

Kana got up and screamed.

“‘Professor’……please stop! Don’t fight these kids!”

Ta! Kana, as if to protect us, charged towards the place in front of the boat head.

There was no voice, nor any sound.

Kana was thrown backward as if she had been hit by the man’s invisible strike.

As I caught Kana, falling backwards with her long tails fluttering in the air…

——A blast of a gun blared, as if like thunder that came from far away.

On the fingers which I used to support Kana, the feeling of a warm, some unknown liquid was felt.

Impossible……IMPOSSIBLE.

“Kana!!”

Blood——!

Kana’s chest, has been pierced. Even if she was wearing a bulletproof vest.

That man didn’t display any movement at all, and shot Kana from that kind of distance.

—— ‘Invisible bullet’—— did he use a sniper rifle, and also use Nii-san’s skill!?

As I embraced Kana as if to protect her, I lifted up my head in surprise, and then I saw……the man……

“…………!”

A slender, thin body.

An aquiline nose, a solid chin.

His right hand was holding an old pipe——and in his left hand, there was a cane.

Though he wasn’t wearing the hat like in that picture or in Butei textbooks’ illustration……but at this point, I can’t doubt anymore that this is a hologram projection or someone that looks similar to him.

He is I-U’s leader, ‘Professor’.

For some reason, he looks as if he was only around his twenties——

Aria, with an incredulous voice——

Called the man…

“……Great, GREAT-GRANDFATHER!?”

Indeed, he is——Aria’s great-grandfather.

Sherlock Holmes the 1st!

Go For The NEXT!!!