Shirayuki tightly wrapped her left arm around Aria’s neck from behind. The sharp edge of the katana in her right hand was dangerously angled against the back of Aria’s neck under her ear. It was lined up with her carotid artery—the vital artery that could be reach by cutting inward by just a few centimeters, causing a person to bleed to death in a matter of seconds.
“Shira . . . yuki! What’s going on?! What’s gotten into you?!” Aria hollered.
From over Aria’s shoulder, Shirayuki then blew on the right hand in which Aria was holding her pistol.
“Uagh!” cried Aria, flinching as if she had been scalded by a hot iron. She dropped her prized Government, and when the silver pistol fell on the ground, the area around it became covered in ice.
“Aria! That’s not her!” I screamed. “That’s not Shirayuki!”
Shirayuki proceeded to blow on Aria’s left hand as well.
“Aaah?!”
She flinched again, this time releasing her jet-black Government and bringing both hands in front of her chest. There was ice attached to her hands as if a hard frost had set in. Seeing that unnatural spectacle caused an instinctive sense of fear to run through my spine.
Shirayuki … did that just now? Using supernatural abilities?
“A mere human,” her voice was no longer Shirayuki’s, “trying to oppose a Stealth? Such foolery.”
I did have a hunch that something wasn’t right. The Shirayuki before me hadn’t done what I told her to do. I told her to take out her sub-edge, but she was lying on the floor coughing and unarmed. That’s why I asked if her lips were okay—to see how she would respond. If she had been the real Shirayuki, who I had kissed when we were under water, there was no way she would have calmly just said something like “they’re fine.” Not only that, but I hadn’t seen her injure her mouth at all. Yet, she answered in a way that suggested she had. This fake Shirayuki was so well disguise that I had to go through such lengths to confirm my suspicions. She was the exact splitting image of Shirayuki. If I hadn’t been in hysteria mode, which increases my senses by many times greater than usual, even I, Shirayuki’s childhood friend, would have been completely fooled and fallen at her hands.
“…Durandal …!” Aria, finally perceiving the imposter’s true identity, cried out her name while trembling in pain from her frozen hands.
“…Don’t call me by that name. I’m not partial to names people arbitrarily label me as.”
“You … remember my name, don’t you?! I’m Aria Holmes Kanzaki! One hundred and seven years of my mom’s prison sentence come from the crimes that you pinned on her! You’re going to have to make amends for what you did!”
“Is that the kind of statement one makes in your situation?” Durandal sneered at the captured Aria. “And regarding your name, it’s laughable for you to be so proud of a name with only one hundred and fifty years of history. My name is much more ancient than yours. It has a history of six hundred years—a proud history of light.” She narrowed her eyes in amusement using Shirayuki’s face and brought her lips close to Aria’s ear. “I see. So you’re the Quadra. It’s just like Lupin the Fourth said.”
Lupin the Fourth’s name was just mentioned. She was referring to Riko.
So she is allied with the “butei killer,” Riko Mine, Lupin the Fourth.
I was just thinking that that a disguise this perfect couldn’t have been possible without her skills.
“Aria, you very much resemble my great ancestor, Joan of Arc the First. You have a beautiful and lovely appearance, but you also have a courageous heart …”
“Joan of Arc …?!” Aria repeated the name.
Did she just say …Joan of Arc?!
I knew the name as well. I learned of it in the world history class that was part of our general education. She was a saint of France who led her country to victory in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France in the fifteenth century. Does Durandal mean she‘s a descendant of that Joan of Arc? … But …
It was impossible for this girl right in front of me to be a descendent of Joan of Arc. The reason being that the woman known as “The Maid of Orléans” met her end by …
“That’a a lie!” cried Aria, “Joan of Arc was burned at the stake …before the age of twenty! She has no descendants!”
“That was a double,” Durandal said, snorting with derision. “Our clan is a clan of strategists. We can feign to be saints, while out true identity is that of a sorceress. We have concealed our true identity in the shadows of history while passing on our pride, name, and ingenuity to our heirs for generations. I am the thirtieth in our line—Joan of Arc the Thirtieth,” said Durandal—or if one were to abide by her claim, Joan of Arc.
“It’s just as you say. My ancestor, the first Joan of Arc, was nearly executed by burning. But following that, we have been studying this power for generations.” Like a poisonous snake, Joan extended her hand to Aria’s thighs and Aria wrenched her body in immense pain again.
“Aaah!”
Before my eyes, ice formed over her small kneecap. There was no longer any doubt. This girl had an unbelievable power that was different the abilities of we buteis.
“Follow me, Aria. Lupin the Fourth failed to bring you back with her, but I’ll be taking you as well. Or … would you prefer to die? I’ve accounted for the possibility of that scenario as well.”
“… Aria!”
I switched my Beretta to semi-automatic and threatened Joan by pointing it at her head … but I couldn’t fire. Butei Charter, Article Nine: Under no circumstances shall a butei kill another person while operating as a butei. I only realized it when I fired at her earlier, but the priestess garbs she was wearing were bullet proof. The only other part of her body that was exposed was the hand that held the katana, but if were to shoot at it, I would hit Aria’s neck. Joan knew the advantage she would have with Aria as her shield. She had it planned all along.
What do I do?
Joan looked me in the eyes as I stood there with furrowed brows and smiled at me presumptuously with Shirayuki’s face.
“Having seen though my disguise, I’m pretty sure you aren’t the usual Kinji Tohyama. I unquestionably need to be on my guard … but in your current state, your weakness is having a girl taken hostage, isn’t that right?”
She certainly deserves her title as a strategist. She had done a very thorough investigation.
“Tohyama, if you move Aria will turn to ice. Aria, don’t you move either, or I’ll freeze any part of you that so much budges.”