Two young blonde ladies in full regal gowns, their smiles glimmering as brightly as tiaras, looked out at him. The violet of their dresses was as vivid as the red autumn leaves beneath the shawls wrapped around their shoulders.
“Hey, you look great. Dresses in Kyoto are a nice contrast. Hold on, lemme get a picture.” Ichika snapped the shutter, trying to capture the image of the two in a rickshaw as Cinderellas in a carriage... And then, suddenly realized something.
“Huff... Puff...” The man gasping for air between the poles of the rickshaw had a suspiciously-familiar shock of red hair.
“Hold it, Dan? Dan, is that you? What the hell are you doing all the way out here?!”
“Oh, hey. I got a job that took me out here... Had to because of, you know... Well, you remember from your birthday party. Can’t believe my past is already catching up with me, ahahaha.”
“Don’t just laugh something like that off! C’mon, we need you around to keep an eye on Ran. She’s growing up fast, you know?”
“You’re the last guy in the world I wanted to hear that from.”
A third mouth opened, about to interject its own opinion in the two boys’ half-argument—the muzzle of a ‘meter’ Mauser C96 with a jaw-droppingly elongated barrel.
“You’d think you were happier to see him than us. Hurry up and get in, Ichika.”
“Okay, okay, fine! Just, where did you get that huge thing?!”
“Oh, this? I just did a fashion shoot in Germany the other day, and they gave me it to use then. It’s fully-operational, of course.”
“‘Fully-operational, of course’?! Don’t you mean it’s just a prop, of course?!”
“Hmm. It may as well be, I guess. I’m not a fan of anything this long. It’s less functional.”
“Oh? I rather like it. After all, it’s got such a history behind it.”
“Is that some kind of joke?”
“No, just that it’s an antique. I meant it purely in a good way.”
“Hm. But this is a replica. There’s no history there.”
“Sometimes it’s more about the form than the actual piece. And it’s beautifully-made, now, isn’t it?”
“Aha. Of course.”
Ichika nodded, amazedly, to himself as he watched Cecilia and Laura play off each other. Cecilia and Laura get along better than I expected.
“Come now, Ichika. Get in.”
“Huh? Don’t rickshaws normally have two seats?”
“This one seats three. Isn’t that right, Mr. Gotanda?”
“Y-Yes, ma’am...” Dan just couldn’t deal with Cecilia turning on her full self-assuredness. It can’t have helped that he must have been working in Kyoto trying to keep up with the financial expectations of Nohotoke Utsuho, but that’s another story for another time.
“All right.”
Cecilia and Laura shimmied to the sides of the bench, opening a space for Ichika between them, then simultaneously raised their fingers just as they’d rehearsed.
“All right, Gotanda Dan! Take it safe, take it slow, and take us around Kyoto on the curviest route you know!”
Laura pressed the muzzle of her gun to the back of Dan’s head. This didn’t exactly make him enthused, but the promise the two had made of a large tip at the end of the ride made his eyes light up with dollar signs.
“All right! I’ll do it! Wait for me, Utsuho!” Calling out his love’s name, Dan jerked the rickshaw upright. He wasn’t known as the ‘sleeping lion’ of his middle school track team for nothing. Or even just for sleeping through practices, although he definitely did plenty of that too. “Let’s go!”
Pulling his headband tighter, Dan began to pull. Ichika was surprised as he felt the world move beneath him.
“C’mon, Dan, you don’t have to—”
“Oh my! Did you feel that shake?”
“We’d better hold on tight.” Bewilderment set in on Ichika’s face as Cecilia and Laura each grabbed an arm.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that bad—”
You could almost, almost make out a pinch of embarrassment, and the realization that even Ichika realized what was going on spurred the girls on further.
“We wouldn’t want you to slip, Ichika! Why don’t you put your arms around our waists?”
He wasn’t sure how to deal with them being so direct, and he didn’t have time to think about it as Dan’s ‘safe’ driving swung them around a curve.
“Whoa!” Pulled by centrifugal force, Ichika found himself wrapping around Cecilia. Their eyes met for a split second.
“I-Ichika...”
“Cecilia, I’m not, I just—”
The honeymoon lasted for only a few moments before he was pulled over to Laura’s side. Even as he fought to keep himself upright instead of pressing down on Laura, it just turned into more and more of an embrace.
“Ichika, why do you have to be so sudden...”
“No, Laura, I just can’t—”
Ichika swung back and forth between them in the swaying rickshaw.
“C’mon, Dan! I thought they told you to keep it slow and safe!”
“U—”
“U?”
“UTSUHOOOOOO! I’m working my hardest! I’ll do my best!”
Ichika gave up on Dan, and resigned himself to wrapping an arm each around Laura and Cecilia.
“I-Ichika?!”
“Ichika?!”
Their faces lit up with blushes, but Ichika, seemingly obliviously, handed his camera to Cecilia and said, “Let’s get a picture of the three of us together.”
Hearing that, Cecilia and Laura’s eyes gleamed.
“Ah, that would be simply wonderful!”
“Yeah, it really would.”
Inside the swaying rickshaw, the three struggled for a steady picture. This would surely be a memory that would never fade.
✦ ✦ ✦
“She’s late.” Chifuyu, waiting with Maya at a bus stop, was beginning to get annoyed. She wasn’t used to being kept waiting.
“Well, you know how Europeans are with time.”
“I’d like that to be the problem, but...”
“But what?”
Chifuyu, her arms crossed, tapped her fingers and replied, “She’s just dumb enough to get the party started all on her own.”
She brought her palm to her chin, as if watching for trouble. And as if on cue, there was a sudden roaring blast. It had to be a deliberate explosion.
“Eeek! Ms. Orimura! What’s going on?!”
“Let’s go, Maya. We’ve got business to take care of.”
“Y-Yes!” Maya clasped her hands to her chest nervously as she watched the billowing smoke. Ichika... Everyone... I hope you’re okay... Seeing her visibly nervous, Chifuyu clapped a palm on her back.
“Don’t worry. After all, I am Brynhildr... And she’s here, too.” Chifuyu’s gaze was clear as she stared off into the distance.
Ten minutes prior—
“All right, now I just need a few pictures of the city for the others,” Ichika relaxedly commented as he viewed the old town through his viewfinder. As he did, the sleeve of a kimono covered his lens.
“Get back.”
“Huh?”
The woman’s left arm moved too quick for him to see. With a clang, something bounced off her pipe.
“Bu-Bullets?!” Ichika could see them piled on the ground.
“More incoming.”
Clang! Clang! More bullets fell to the ground before her.
Ichika, confused, wavered, “Wh-Who are you? You’re that lady from before, right? With the cat?”
“Alicia Giosestaf. Call me Allie.” She turned her head to face Ichika, and winked, making it clear she was anything but a normal person by continuing to bat bullets out of the air.
“What’s going on?!”
“Huh? They’re trying to assassinate you. Looks like you’re popular in all the wrong ways, Orimura Ichika. Anyway, time to take this seriously!” As she shouted, she was enveloped in light. The light of an IS materializing.
“Wait, is that Tempesta?!” The legendary IS, runner-up in the first Mondo Grosso and winner of the second. But what happened to her arm? Ichika had seen her missing an arm and eye before.
As he wondered, Allie grinned at him and said, “Yeah, sometimes shit happens. But Tempesta’s just as ready as ever!”
Machinery wrapped into bone, into flesh. A prosthetic arm of IS technology, easily plucking bullets out of the air as they rained down.
Half a kilometer away—
“And that’s a failure. That little horndog sure is good at wrapping women around his finger.” Behind the scope was IS Academy third year, Daryl Casey.
“Wh-What are we doing?” Forte, still not understanding why she’d been brought along, wavered.
“What? We’re assassinating Orimura Ichika, of course.”
“Assassinating him? What’s going on?!”
Her trusted friend. Her reliable mentor. ...Her lover. Forte’s world was crumbling around her.
“My code name is Rain Meusel. Last of the Meusels.”
“Rain... Meusel...”
Rain laughed it away as if it were nothing. The same aloof confidence as always... It was enough to bring tears to Forte’s eyes.
“But why? Why are you with Phantom Task? Why are we betraying everyone?” Forte’s confused voice was thin, plaintive.
“Why? Who knows. Maybe it’s fate, I guess. My family’s curse.”
Another laugh. With more than a little regret and self-loathing sprinkled in. The wind howled around them, on the rooftop of a building.
“If she didn’t know where we were before, she sure does now. Time to make up your mind.”
“Make up my mind?”
“You know what about.” Whether to stay at IS Academy or go with Rain.
“Let’s turn traitor. To the whole world, if need be.”
The words sounded so sweet. Almost cloyingly sweet, as Forte clutched her head in confusion and cowered.
“There, there.” Rain wrapped her arms around Forte.