Prologue: Kino

~She is KINO~

“From my cold! Dead! Hands!”

A clear voice called forth a burst of light.

The light gathered towards the owner of the voice.

A girl with short black hair, dressed in a sailor uniform, had just begun to be enveloped in a brilliant glow.

The model gun in her right hand, held high in the air.

Her green school uniform.

The red tie over her chest.

The belt around her waist.

The little pouches and holsters on her belt.

The cell phone strap hanging from the belt.

Her swaying skirt.

Her indoor shoes, marked with red stripes.

All covered in a blinding flash of light.

The image of the silhouette of the naked fictional teenager was drawn--

Just hazy enough to keep the veins in the censors’ heads intact.

A second later:

Ta-Dah!

With a fanfare that sounded oddly like someone saying goodbye, light scattered in all directions.

Standing in its wake was a warrior of justice.

Dressed in a green sailor uniform, with the silly addition of a pair of red school-issue track pants, was our hero--Mysterious Bishoujo Gun Fighter Rider Kino (shortened to Kino from this point forth), ready for action so quickly in the book.

“Transformation complete! Show evil no mercy and seal away those demons!” Cried Hermes, the chic green leather-and-metal cell phone strap on her belt.

“I will.” Kino answered quickly and calmly.

She lowered her transfigured model gun (which still looked the same as before), the mysterious super-weapon that could revert demons back to human state--Big Cannon~ Shining Iron Demon Destroyer. She quickly took aim and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

With a sharp noise, A mysterious bullet was launched from Big Cannon by the ignition of mysterious gunpowder, spinning mysteriously as it mysteriously drew a mysterious arc in the air.

Bam!

It landed square on the demon’s back.

They were currently on the roof of the school. The demon stood in the middle of the rooftop, and Kino was in front of the staircase doors. There was no one else around them.

The sky was a clear blue on this beautiful autumn day. From the looks of the sun shining high in the heavens, it was just before midday.

“I don’t believe it... I could get these jobs done so much more easily if no one got in my way all the time.” Kino mumbled in awe, holstering Big Cannon on her right side.

Before her eyes was a badger-shaped demon, three meters in size, slowly reverting back to human form under the sunlight with a sizzle.

Nine seconds pa.s.sed.

Lying there on the concrete floor was a young man in his second year of high school. He was uninjured.

This student was the victim who had fallen to temptation today.

The situation:

Approximately ten minutes ago, the young man was desperately making his way through his language midterm.

Because he was more science-and-math oriented, this student’s language marks were not up to snuff. He had already spent too much time on the reading comprehension part of his midterm, and was now anxiously trying to finish the remainder of his test.

After this, midterms would be finished. Their long and arduous exam season would be over very soon. The young man decided that he would climb up to the rooftop after the test and doze off with his eyes on the clear blue sky.

“Five minutes left, everyone. Make sure you’ve written your names at the top of your papers.”

The teacher’s advice, well-meaning but only more pressure-inducing, drove the young man to scribble away more furiously than before. Soon, he came across a strange question:

[Have you finally answered all of the questions on this exam? Answer honestly. (15 points)]

If he was in a right state of mind, he would have noticed the peculiarities.

Their infamously strict teacher would never include such a lighthearted question on their midterm. On top of that, no teacher would allocate fifteen out of a hundred marks to a joke question like this.

In fact, many other students had read over the same question. And everyone but this young man realized:

‘This is demonic temptation!’

With this in mind, they creatively answered the question with answers like “Dunno”, “Too hard to answer”, “The year 1185 or the year 1192”, “Liver and leek meal combo”, “This is obviously demonic temptation”, or ignored it outright.

But perhaps the stress of the exam had gotten to this student. He found himself writing:

[Yes! I’m done!]

He sighed in relief and blacked out instantly.

A bespectacled female cla.s.smate sitting next to him watched as he slowly transformed.

“Idiot.” She mumbled disdainfully.

The students in the cla.s.s evacuated the room. At the same time, the demon alarm went off in the entire school building. With only three minutes before the end of midterms, the entire student body and faculty was forced to evacuate.

“d.a.m.n it! Why now?!”

“Who’s the idiot this time?!”

“If you’re gonna fall to temptation, can’t you at least do it three minutes after the exam starts? School rules say we can take the midterm again then.”

“Maybe if he just destroys the school and gives us some days off... But I guess Mysterious Kino’s going to take care of him.”

“Hey, wanna go over to the student cafeteria?”

The students chattered amongst themselves as they calmly evacuated the premises as usual.

Meanwhile, the protagonist:

“Eeeek! This is terrible! I’m so scared! What do we do?!”

She quickly broke off from the escaping students with acting skills worthy of this year’s Razzie. She discovered the demon disappearing towards the rooftop as it broke down the walls, and began to quietly follow after it.

Once she confirmed that all the students had safely evacuated, Kino transformed as she stepped onto the rooftop and instantly landed her shot.

That’s all for the recap.

Having completed her mission with ease, Kino’s dark eyes looked up at the blue skies as she mumbled:

“Ah, I’m hungry.”

As Kino strode away, leaving behind the reverted student without a care--

“Hm. Two second too late in putting on my underwear.” Mumbled a man wearing a red apple and a dove on his head, a white mask over his face, a white cape, a pair of white doggy ears, a white school uniform, and a katana.

This pervert will appear again in the story.

Whoosh. As the pervert disappeared from the rooftop,

“d.a.m.n it... 0.6 seconds too late to put on my sungla.s.ses...” Mumbled a young man wearing a long black coat, a pair of sungla.s.ses, and holding a pair of Magpul Masada a.s.sault rifles.

This weirdo will also appear again in the story.

[Narration: Kino]

Is it good or bad? I can’t say.

Anyway, like many people, I was raised in the country where I was born.

I’m from a very ordinary family of gun lovers.

That’s why I don’t know a thing about the trials and tribulations of people who love guns, or the dilemmas of people who hate them.

When I was little, I wanted to become an eating contest champion because that’s the only way I could eat for free.

There’s nothing more awesome and beautiful than eating as much food as possible, as fast as possible.

But two months before I graduated from elementary school, the TV Tokyo Broadcasting Station taught me that that was impossible.

This is why I entered my current high school.

An introduction to the characters of this story:

Kino

A female student in her fourth year at the academy, (Equivalent to her first year of high school)

No matter what anyone might tell you, she is the main character of this story. She also has the most appearances in the series. “Kino” is her family name. Her given name has yet to be revealed.

With a holstered model gun and a belt with pouches full of firearms around her sailor uniform, she is a perfectly ordinary student attending a secondary school in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The kind of girl you might see at your own neighborhood.

Transforming into the warrior of justice, "Mysterious Bishoujo Gun Fighter Rider Kino", she fights day and night against demons--students who have fallen to the temptation of evil--that attack the schools, all in order to turn them back into human form. She is accompanied by Hermes, the talking cell phone strap.

Hermes

A mysterious talking cell phone strap.

A character possessed of a truly mysterious anatomy. Where are his eyes, nose, and mouth? No one knows, and no one is allowed to know. He provides Kino with the power to transform and fight demons, free of charge. In short, he is her guide.

He is the only sane man (only sane cell phone strap) in this work full of crazies, so everything he does is very jarring. It’s all good as long as the readers don’t notice.

Hermes sometimes transforms into a motorcycle to a.s.sist Kino, but right now his abilities are limited to use in battle.

Shizu

A male student in his sixth year at the academy. (Equivalent to his third year of high school)

The top student in his year, a handsome and popular young man who always carries a sword at his side. His full name is also a mystery. This is most definitely not because the author is too lazy to make one up for him.

He’s quite close to Kino now, thanks to certain circ.u.mstances. He’s also an acquaintance of Inuyama, and is a member of the Take Action Now Club. Other than his blatant disregard for weapon laws, he is a man of perfection.

But unbeknownst to all is his true ident.i.ty as the self-proclaimed warrior of justice, Samoyed Mask. Thanks to his constant interruptions during Kino’s battles with the demons, he has earned himself a place at the top of her To-Kill-List. Kino already considers him a worse threat than the demons, so he always gets a barrage of bullets in return for his greetings. But he always escapes unscathed by use of his sword or tomatoes.

His greatest weakness is Ti. Every time he sees her, he is struck by a wave of agony that paralyzes him on the spot. His fear of her seems to be rooted in some traumatic past event, but the specifics of the incident are still unknown. It must be true! The author says so.

Samoyed Mask

See: Shizu

Do we still need this subheading?

Inuyama Wanwan Rikutarou

A cla.s.smate of Kino. He is a beautiful boy with long, soft white hair who would probably look great in drag. Is is quite popular with the girls, although not as much as Shizu. When they are together, they become even more popular among certain groups of girls. The specifics are unclear.

Thanks to his unrelentingly realistic stalker-like behavior towards Kino, Inuyama has earned her hatred. He also shows a great deal of hostility towards Shizu, but the reasons are a mystery. The biggest mystery of the series.

Chako-sensei is very fond of Inuyama, often hugging him from behind and putting her chin on his head.

Detective Wanwan

A mysterious white-haired boy in black clothes and sungla.s.ses who fights using the Septuple-Gun Fist Style, a dangerous martial art that involves dual-wielding guns while evading bullets. He looks quite familiar, but this is probably just a coincidence.

When fighting demons, he a.s.sists Kino in obsessively targeting Samoyed Mask. Kino sees him as someone very reliable. Just make out already!

Ti seems to be very fond of Detective Wanwan. Once she gets a hold of him from behind, he is rendered powerless.

Kuroshima Chako

An English teacher in her early twenties who suddenly stirred up a storm with her arrival. She started up the Take Action Now Club by spectacularly threatening the princ.i.p.al.

She is a stylish, mature woman with white hair and emerald-green eyes. Thanks to her strange personality, she is very popular with the students.

For some reason, she is extremely fond of Inuyama and has a tendency to hug him from behind and rest her chin on his head.

Ti

A stoic+silent girl who appears on the battlefield out of nowhere.

She looks to be about twelve years old, and has white hair and emerald-green eyes. She effortlessly throws around Mk 2 grenades (the type used by the US military) like a seasoned warrior.

It seems very certain that she has some sort of history with Samoyed Mask.

For some reason, she is extremely fond of Detective Wanwan and has the tendency to hug him from behind and rest her chin on his head. Yeah, she’s definitely on our side.