User talk:YoakeNoHikari

1st Ammo - Lumberjack -Night of Revenge-

One Autumn afternoon...

"Man, the Texas burger is great!"

"I guess?"

"And it's 10 times better when you eat it with the person you like!"

"..."

Kaname and I were eating hamburgers at a MacDonald's in Daiba; we were seated under the deep blue sky, on a trendy terrace. There were a lot of couples eating here. Understandable, as it was new, and quite pretty. Kaname was acting cute, and she certainly looked the part. We were just a high school girl and a high school boy on a date.

No ordinary person that knew the truth would be able to look her in the eye without a shiver running down their spine.

"The weather's great! Totally fitting for our wonderful sibling date~!"

Tohyama Kaname. Self-proclaimed little sister. She's a danger to society. She could be perfectly fine one second, but once the flip is switched, she's blowing up pedestrian walkways, hurling grenades around, swinging kitchen knives around...like a roaring flame, too hot to touch. She could destroy the whole district by herself in half an hour.

What the hell's a 'sibling date' anyway?

Please don't spout out such terribly thought out jargon so loudly...And I don't get it, who eats hamburgers with a caramel latte? When you go to MacDonald's, you get a coke. In Jeanne's words, that is one of the laws of this world.

Autumn's the season for war...or so they say, I thought to myself.

Sipping the cola, I felt what remained of my appetite slipping away. I hadn't even taken a bite of my burger, I was too far in the depths of my melancholy, thinking about what had happened the other day. The trauma of the incident was the cause of my languor.

Shirayuki and Kaname had had a showdown in my room.

"W-We must have a duel! Fatal accidents may occur during a duel! This duel must occur! The stability of the Tohyama family, and by extension the safety of Japan hinges on it!"

Shirayuki stormed into my room, and finding Kaname there, she screamed a challenge before unleashing a hail of bullets at Kaname, who was dancing and dodging around the room, laughing all the while. In that moment, she looked like Lucifer, come forth to issue judgement.

After all, Shirayuki's guns, M60s, were full-auto machine guns. Bullets just kept flying and flying. In the end, the gun overheated so much that the shear mechanism failed, causing bullets to fly out without end. The guns had heat fins, but such things were meaningless in the face of Shirayuki's raging trigger fingers. She kept firing till the guns ran dry, their metallic bodies bent and twisted from thermal expansion. When they at last fell silent, Shirayuki tossed them aside.

"This was just a taste. My formal challenge will come later, and I shall not touch you beforehand. Take the time to enjoy what remains of your life." Spitting those words out, Shirayuki left.

...

How fitting of the student council president of Butei High. Being sprayed at by machine guns constitutes a 'taste'. Though I was near my wits' end with terror the next day, Shirayuki still interacted me just as she always had: gentle, docile, and sweet. When Kaname was around, she came to my room, saying:

"Oh, this is terrible..." before restoring it to its original condition. But all the while, I was thinking: You were the one who did this, Shirayuki. Don't you remember? It's like you're schizophrenic.

That wasn't the only thing. After that, she would still come over to do housework, smiling all the while, but...I caught a glimpse of her staring Kaname's toothbrush and laundry, her face twisted into an expression of rage, looking almost like a Hannya mask. And she would leave traces of her housework behind. Upon seeing those traces, Kaname would, despite whatever cheerful attitude or smiles she came back with, take on the same expression that I had seen on Shirayuki. Faced with this, I had only one thought:

This is terrifying...

In view of how nice these two normally acted towards me, it made their sudden transformation all the more shocking. This couldn't be good for my heart. It reminded me of the head twisting scene in "The Exorcist". But this time there were two demons...I'd even prefer Aria's violence to this. As fast as she blows her top, the following period of terror ends just as swiftly. These thoughts assailed me as I took a pill with my coke.

Suddenly, the sparrows sitting in the corner of the terrace startled, chirping noisily, and flew away.

"Huh?" I let slip. S-She's here! Mounting the escalator up the terrace, feet stomping on the metal...

"..."

At first, I saw only the white ribbons streaming from her hair, but she soon appeared, in her bullet-proof uniformed glory. It was Shirayuki. She gave me a graceful bow, but when she turned to Kaname, I knew why the sparrows had flown away. They were fleeing from the killing intent pouring from her smiling face. Kaname was waving at her, a smile also on her lips. I could just about hear the 'Hi~!' she would have said, but instead, all I could feel was anger, emanating from her body like electricity. The negative aura surrounding the two had completely decimated the atmosphere. What a waste of a clear blue autumn sky.

I stood between them. I was the one who had called them out. Now I sat there, looking between the two of them like the referee of a wrestling match.

"Good day, Kin-chan. Oops!" She stumbled as she stepped off the escalator, but managed not to fall. As clumsy as ever, I suppose.

"Well, now that we're all gathered here...you should order something as well, Shirayuki. Maybe a hamburger."

"Okay." Shirayuki clapped her hands. After a moment, she looked around, the question mark clear on her face. The three of us sat there in silence, before I realised...that was the gesture to summon a waiter at the school cafeteria.

Come to think of it, Shirayuki doesn't really leave the shrine except to go to school.

She's never come to a MacDonald's before, has she? Well, I guess I'll have to go with her to order something. But seriously, calling for a waiter in a MacDonald's? There's got to be a limit to how out of touch you can be. How sheltered are you, Shirayuki? That was a winning entrant in the Sheltered Maiden Olympics.

As for why I had called the two of them here...the reason that Shirayuki had challenged Kaname to a duel was because Aria, Riko, and Reki, having been taken by surprise by Kaname before, were plotting their revenge. To that end, they had thrown their hats into Shirayuki's ring. With Shirayuki at the vanguard, the Baskerville girls were poised on the edge of an all-out conflict with Tohyama Kaname. If I just left them to have it out, who knows what kind of war would arise? If that happened, Butei High might just go under. So I decided to be the mediator. I had prepared a negotiation table, so this conflict could be resolved without bloodshed. The reason this was a MacDonald's table was because of the large number of bystanders. Even Shirayuki and Kaname would hesitate to bring out the machine guns or knives in this kind of situation. Teriyaki meal on a tray, Shirayuki followed me, spellbound expression on her face.

"Alright, sit down here, Shirayuki. Before we begin, take note. We are outside Butei High. Shooting, stabbing, slashing, or other violence of any kind just because you feel like it is expressly forbidden. You too, Kaname." The fact that I had to say this was depressing, but still...just in case. I sat myself facing Kaname. The two of them sat there, arrayed in front of me, They smiled at each other, faces frozen like noh masks.

...My stomach hurt.

"Has to be the death penalty."

Kaname decided to start things off the worst way they could.

"When you returned from buying a hamburger with my brother, there were hearts just flying from your innocent little face."

Kaname was gnawing at her straw, and smoke was...coming from her mouth? Was the straw melting from the heat of friction? What the hell? That jaw strength...That's like a crocodile's or shark's level. On the other hand, Shirayuki was daintily taking bites from her Teriyaki meal.

"I guess that being a concubine means that every petty little thing is of the utmost importance." And there she goes, issuing a challenge of her own. But wait...concubine? What makes you think that you're my wife? This was definitely not the mood to point that out, though. I have to get through this negotiation peacefully.

"Don't start this conversation looking for a fight. We're here to resolve this conflict, not cause another."

"Kaname. The true wife holds the power. That is a fact. I will not back down."

"What idiocy are you spouting? As the little sister, I'm the strongest here. I'm not backing down either."

Yep. This won't work. Well, time to work out an escape route, then.

"The wife!"

"The little sister, duh!"

Shirayuki and Kaname had each taken hold of one of my arms, and they were pulling. I...I had experienced this before with Aria and Riko. If this just goes on, I'm going to be split in two! An image of my body, split perfectly in two from head to toe, meandered into my mind.

"I did some investigating. And I found that you were registered as an American Butei, Kaname."

"Mmmm, those records weren't erased yet, huh? Well, what about it?" They glared at each other.

"You are a Butei. I am a Butei. Butei should not fight each other, if not at a client's behest. Therefore, Team Baskerville has decided: they shall have their revenge through a representative, in accordance to Butei High's rules for dueling."

"Hey! What are they deciding without me!? I'm the leader!"

"I am that representative. This was a unanimous decision." A unanimous decision that I wasn't part of! Kaname smirked viciously in response.

At Butei High, the unofficial directive, taken straight from the Masters was this: "Duels between students should not occur, in accordance to our official rules." Which is to say, just have them if you want. Anything as dangerous as a duel is, as a matter of course, banned in this country. However, our school, in which danger is an everyday occurrence, chooses to close an eye. Naturally, whatever happens during a duel won't ever go official. If you went crying to the police, saying that you were hurt in a duel, you'd just be laughed at.

"You really are an idiot. Don't you know which of us is stronger?"

"This is my challenge. Do you accept?"

You could just about see the sparks in the air as they locked gazes. Suddenly, Kaname released her hold on my arm.

"Sure. I accept. And I'll return this too. After all, I'm done analysing it." Just as her sentence trailed off, something dropped from the sky. It fell at a perfect timing, unnoticed by those around us. Letting go of my arm, Shirayuki caught it. It was a Japanese blade, sheathed in a scarlet scabbard.

Irokaneayame!

I looked to the sky, and about thirty meters above me an X-shaped piece of cloth fluttered, spinning like the blades of a helicopter. It was the weapon that had blocked Aria's bullets, and sliced through a pedestrian crossing like it was paper. Kaname had probably kept it there, just in case a fight broke out.

That's your primary weapon, right? Fighting you when I've already taken it from you would be pretty cowardly."

"Cowardly? I never thought that I would hear that from you, of all people." Shirayuki laughed, hand daintily covering her mouth. Kaname continued to stare at her.

"I learned it recently. Kinji told me 'not to do anything cowardly'. So I won't. Unlike you." As she said this, a MacDonald's waitress walked by. Kaname reached out and grabbed her ass. Letting out an exclamation, the silver-haired waitress spun around, a visor obscuring her facial features, but...

"J-Jeanne!? What're you doing here?" It was Jeanne d'Arc. Former IU agent, now a second year Informa.

Her ice-blue eyes opened wide, shocked at having been found.

"Goshhh, so prettyy! You're so vulnerable to beautiful girls, Kinji." Kaname's eyes were burning holes into Jeanne.

"Hotogi Shirayuki. The 'Witch of Infernos', seducing my brother. And helping her, the 'Witch of Diamond Dust'. Looks like it's time for a witch-hunt. Two on one seems about right to me. I wouldn't even call it a handicap." Kaname declared cockily. Shirayuki looked down, her fringe dropping to cover her eyes. But they still shone from its shadow.

"Two on one...I wonder about that."

Oh God. What's going to happen to my peaceful afternoon at MacDonald's?

I looked around. T-They're here. All of them are here, dressed as part-time waitresses. Aria was frying french fries in the kitchen, the shape of her gun clearly visible beneath her skirt. Riko was cheerfully manning the cashier, despite not having been there before. Reki was mopping the floor in the corner of the terrace. I could even see Haimaki hidden in the shadows of the shrubbery.

We were completely surrounded.

"Kinji, I'm so scared~ They're bullying me~" Kaname clung to me, but her words were clearly in monotone. Looking where she's grabbing me though...I'm her hostage.

"Aren't you the one who started it? You did something that made everyone hate you." I knew that I didn't hold any value as a hostage. Not like the Baskervilles cared at all about how much I was hurt...not wanting to be blown to bits, I tried to tear myself away from Kaname.

"Whaaat?" Kaname let go of me suddenly.

"You guys are such idiots! You just don't learn. I'll turn you into hamburgers!" She roared at the Baskerville girls (and Jeanne.) On the other hand, a dangerous smile was still hovering on Shirayuki's lips.

"Everything will be okay, Kin-chan. We will not entrap you now. That comes later. We only called everyone here just in case Kaname went berserk here...after all, she is so unreasonable. Teehee."

"H-Haha, I see. Thank you very much." I was so terrified that I ended up thanking her. Shirayuki seemed to have prepared for battle, just like Kaname.