#oh honey youve got a big storm coming
Time to dust off my translation of the Shiro story from the light novels and actually start trying to finish it!
The white car I had driven into the village was parked inside the grounds. I let go of the man’s hand as we reached it.
I’d had the ghouls slash a front tire and a rear tire on my beloved car right from the start. That way, the villagers couldn’t suggest driving somewhere to call for help. All the cars in town had suffered the same sort of attack. And of course, all the phone lines were already cut.
By now, this village was like its own lonely island.
As I was feeling proud of my work, the Asian man muttered something in a language I wasn’t familiar with. “Kyou…kai?”[T/N: “A church?”] He was frowning.
Probably wondering why his chant hadn’t had any effect back there.
Seen from the side, he had a face like a knife blade: sharp, cold, and guarded. I would have to be careful around him.
“I think we lost them,” I told the men calmly, putting on a relieved face.
I was plenty aware that my gorgeous features and the bright white teeth peeking out from behind my smile had a tremendous effect on new people—or rather, on men. I use every resource available to me. What’s wrong with using my femininity a little?
I could either dispose of them somewhere in the commotion, or use my body to entice them—either way, I would have to pretend to be their ally for now.
“All of the villagers are hiding in here. I’ve surrounded the grounds with high-grade holy water, so middle level and lower demons can’t get in. It’s safe.”
“You put up this barrier?” the Asian man asked when I had finished speaking. This time he used proper English.
“Yes.”
“Fujimoto Shirou, Order of the True Cross, Japan Branch,” he said, taking out his license from his inner coat pocket and showing it to me.
So he was Japanese?
I honestly hadn’t expected that.
With his native-like English pronunciation and the way he looked straight at a stranger like he was trying to drill through them with his eyes…well, to put it bluntly, he didn’t seem very Japanese.
When I thought of a Japanese person, I imagined someone who was all cheerful smiles but never looked anyone in the eye, who was always hunched over busily working on something, who had a big camera slung around their neck, and who was surprisingly bad at English—not just the children, but grown adults too.
The thick glasses he was wearing were just about the only thing that matched my mental image…
“Maria LaMorte. Upper second class. I’m an Aria meister.” At any rate, I went ahead and held up the badge that I had hanging at chest level on a gold chain. Showing proof that we were allies would be the most effective way to get him to let his guard down.
“Maria, huh? Hey, have we met somewhere before?”
He lazily waved his index finger back and forth between us.
“Hm? I’m sorry, I don’t recall.” I shook my head.
“That’s weird,” said the man from Japan, rustling a hand through his coarse-looking hair. “I usually make a point of remembering every beautiful lady I see, even if we only met once.” He pulled one corner of his mouth into a crooked grin as he said it. It was the smile of a ladies’ man.
This is a japonés?At this point I’d gone so far beyond exasperation that I was almost impressed.
As I answered him with a “hmph,” the white man joined the conversation, also speaking fluent English.
“May I introduce myself as well, Fujimoto-sempai?”
I observed the second man indifferently.
First off, he was terribly tall. Even I had to crane my neck to look at him.
He was probably an Aria or something, with skin so pale you could see the veins underneath. He had nice features that I suppose could be called handsome, but there was a nervous look about him—maybe it was the dark circles under his eyes.
“I’m his underling Johann, lower second class. It’s a pleasure to meet such a lovely Sister.”
He certainly wasn’t shy about speaking so pretentiously in his clear baritone voice, complete with theatric gestures. And what’s worse, it actually suited him.
If he was lower second class at his age, he must have just become an exorcist. That would explain why his brand-new uniform looked so pitifully out of place on him.
Plus, he seemed weak and sickly.
Nothing to worry about from this one.
I made myself a mental note and turned my gaze back to Fujimoto.
There was one thing I needed to confirm before anything else.
“Do either of you speak Spanish?”
Spanish was the lingua franca in much of South America. The villagers here all used Spanish in their daily lives, and knew practically no English. And that meant things could get dicey if these two spoke any Spanish—but they both shook their heads.
That was a relief. It looked like fortune was on my side.
“But what are members of the Japan branch doing here?”
“It’s a cross-border mission based in international goodwill,” Fujimoto answered my question first, but he was clearly stifling a yawn as he said it.
Johann was eager to add, “We finished our mission without incident and were on our way back to the nearest branch office when we ran out of gas. We walked the rest of the way here! Yes, that’s why we’re so ill-equipped. We’ve already exhausted the bulk of our supplies.”
What an unbelievable stroke of luck. This is perfect, I thought, as I desperately resisted the urge to grin. That would explain why they were so lightly armed.
In that case, it would be child’s play to kill them. As long as I promptly dumped the bodies somewhere near where their mission had been, I could fool the local branch. I’d found a silver lining to all this.
“It’s true what they say—that exorcists are always horribly understaffed. To think a new recruit like me would be sent out to work like a dog…I’m afraid I may have chosen the wrong profession.”
Fujimoto ignored his lackey’s cheerful complaint and asked me, “So what the hell happened to this village?”
He spoke casually, but his sharp gaze never dulled. Beneath his flippant demeanor, the man had no weakness, no openings. I felt like he’d pierce right through my armor if I let my guard down at all—and as I thought that, I casually glanced away from him.
It was dangerous to make too much eye contact with an enemy, especially a sharp enemy like this.
That said, avoiding eye contact too much wasn’t an option either. That was practically begging them to suspect you.
I was confident that I could strike the right balance.
“When I got here this evening, there were already ghouls wandering all over the village.” I put everything I had into playing the part of a good and pious exorcist.
When I bit my lower lip a little in mock bewilderment, I really did start feeling bewildered. I was sure the deep lines forming on my forehead looked surprisingly natural too.
“The villagers were in a terrible panic over being attacked by corpses all of a sudden—everything was completely out of hand. I don’t think I finished setting a barrier around this church and getting everyone inside until about an hour ago.”
I cut off the story there to say, “Anyway, let’s all go inside the church,” and invited them onto my home turf. The more I talked, the more likely they were to find holes in my story. I needed to keep conversation about the village’s condition to a minimum. “The ghouls might attack us again, after all. Can we wait until we’re inside to talk?”
The two men accepted my proposal easily.
I had some awful uninvited guests on my hands, but I was glad they were both men, at least. If they were women, I wouldn’t even have the option to seduce them as a last resort.
The Japanese one especially seemed like a womanizer. As long as I could deal with him somehow, that weakling Johann wouldn’t be a problem.
It’s okay. They’re not a major obstacle, I repeated to myself as I led them to the church and pushed the door open. The door was needlessly heavy, maybe because of its elaborate construction, and Fujimoto casually reached out from behind me to help support it. At this decidedly un-Japanese show of chivalry, I looked back at him over my shoulder and smiled.
“It’s too bad for you two, but…I’m glad you ran out of gas.”
“Well, hearing that from someone as beautiful as you makes the whole walk worth it,” Fujimoto answered, flirtatiously.
I gave him a gentle grin in return.
Deep down, all I could think of was how to entrap this man from Japan.
At the very least, I had to get rid of these two tonight.
No matter what it took…
