“... A-A little … a little happy. B-But just a little bit, okay?!”
“If you’re happy, I’m happy. Now then … will you trust me as well?”
“… Y-Yes.” Aria nodded and even gazed up at me the way a child does with an adult.
It’s like she’s at my beck and call when I’m in hysteria mode.
“We both believe in one another,” I delivered the finishing blow, and Aria brought her coupled hands to her chest as if something had rang out deep in her heart. “That’s why I want you to be confident and tell me how we should time our attacks. We’re going to arrest Durandal.”
While I was rebuilding the bond of trust between Aria and I, the conflict between fire and ice in which Shirayuki looked as if she were dominating at the beginning, now seemed to be an even battle. “…Ngh!” Shirayuki was swinging her sword around with her teeth clenched tightly; it didn’t even look like she was breathing.
She made an attack in which she practically used her entire body to ram into her opponent, and Joan finally fell backwards against the wall in a squatting position. But …
“Haaa, haaa, haaa!”
… Shirayuki, the person who landed the attack, was the one breathing hard and looking groggy. As if to illustrate her shortness of breath, the flames surrounding Shirayuki’s katana were much smaller than what they previously were.
“Throw down your sword, Joan. You’ve lost.”
“Heh … heh heh,” Joan laughed unseemly, and with one smooth motion, instantly created a flowing mist of minute ice crystals all around her. Under the cover of that mist, she rolled forward, escaping to Shirayuki’s side. In a panic, Shirayuki swung to the side her katana, which had lost most of it flames.
Clang.
The blade pierced the wall … and came to a stop. It was all too clear. Shirayuki was losing the power she had been using until now—and it happened in just a few minutes. It was just as Aria said. Chouteis were powerful. They can pride themselves on possessing a strength that was incomprehensible to others. But they were unable to fight for an extended period of time. Video games worked the same way. When a character that uses powerful magic runs out of the means to cast those spells ...
“Haaa, haaa ... haaa.” Still holding the hilt of her Katana, Shirayuki fell on one knee. She looked completely exhausted. It was as if she had just run a full marathon. She pulled her katana out of the wall and resting it on the floor, she fumbled for the vermillion-lacquered scabbard that was lying nearby. And for some reason, she used it to sheath her sword.
“You’re soft.” said Joan. “You’re a woman as soft as ice cream. To think you would aim only for my sword and not my body … despite the fact that it’s utterly impossible to cut through the Sacred Sword Durandal,” said Joan, repositioning herself and placing Durandal’s edge against Shirayuki’s neck.
Aria … not yet? It’s still not time to give our support?
I saw Shirayuki grit her teeth as she place the sheathed sword behind her, almost as if she were trying to hide it.
Shirayuki!
I nearly jumped out on impulse, but Aria placed an admonishing hand on my arm.
“Not yet, Kinji! Shirayuki’s … probably leaving herself just enough strength to perform one more attack. … But she needs time before she can use it. It looks to me like … she’s charging up some kind of power …” Aria said in a soft voice, looking as if she were desperately restraining her own self from rushing out into fray.
Diamond dust began to dance around Joan again as she held her sword in her hand. Before my very eyes, it raged throughout the room like a snowstorm. Once again, the cold instantly dropped to sub-zero temperature inside the room!
“Behold the Fleur de la glace d’Orléans (Ice Flower of Orleans)! Turn to silver ice and forfeit your life!”
Beyond the diamond dust, Joan’s Durandal began emitting a bluish-white light that steadily grew brighter. Just then …!
“Kinji, follow after me in three seconds!” yelled Aria, pulling out the two short katanas from behind her and flying towards Joan like a bullet.
… One second.
Joan, who had been concentrating on her battle with Shirayuki, turned around startled.
… Two seconds.
“A mere butei!” Joan swung her sword sideways towards Aria in a fit of rage, but even faster than that, Aria used the katana in her right hand to pick up the priestess garbs Joan had thrown to the floor and flung them up in front of her, robbing Joan of her sight for just an instant.
“!”
Aria lowered her body and slid with skill of a professional soccer player. Joan’s arm continued to swing on the path it traveled. Aria had read her opponents movements and carried herself using aikido-like baritsu movements. Above Aria, a torrent of blue light pushed aside the priestess garbs in midair and rose upwards. The spectacle before me truly was something one would see in a video game. An eddy of shining ice crystals converted into blue cannon fire and reached all the way to the ceiling. It spread on impact like a colossal flower of ice blooming on the ceiling.
… Three seconds!
“Kinji, now! Joan can’t use her powers anymore!”
Aria didn’t even have to tell me. I raced towards Joan, creating a rift in the diamond dust around me.
Blam! Blam! Blam!
I fired along a vertical line centered on the upper half of Joan’s body with my Beretta, which I had set to fire in three-burst rounds. Using Durandal, which she had already brought back in front of her, Joan deflected all three of the bullets. I had anticipated she would. She was a master swordswoman who could fight on even grounds with Shirayuki. That’s why I increased my speed and closed in on her. I would engage her in the close-range pistol combat I had learned in Assault. During class, I used something similar to the shields employed by riot police though. When enemies had a means of defending themselves from bullets, the tactic buteis use to defeat them is by showering them with bullets at point-blank range.
“A lowly butei like you dares to challenge me?!” Joan roared, actually coming right for me. Aria swung her two katanas at Joan’s feet, and naturally, expecting that as well, Joan jumped into the air, leaping towards me. Using her sword, she blocked the bullets I fired to intercept her. But she didn’t just defend herself. After her sword arced back, she brought it down again—aiming for my skull.
“!!”