Caged Bird is the seventh episode of the Hidan no Aria anime. It was aired on May 27, 2011.
Summary[]
Aria and Kinji have terminated their contract, leaving only Kinji to guard Shirayuki. Despite not believing in Durandal's existence, Kinji continues to protect and serve Shirayuki - be it a date to a festival or guarding her during the upcoming festival.
Plot[]
Recovering from a cold, Kinji continues his training with Aria, in case Durandal shows up. Soon, the two get into a fight as Kinji believes that Aria was lying about Durandal’s existence. He claims that Aria has convinced herself that he's real out of desperation to clear her mother's name and believes she's fooling herself into believing Durandal's existence, but Aria insists that he's real and she trusts her intuition, but he forces her to show him real prove, and accuses her of assuming things all the time and jumping to conclusions. Aria tells Kinji he's just like everyone else, still trusting her intuition that Durandal does exist, and questions why Kinji won't listen to her despite pouring her heart to him, but he refuses to believe an enemy that doesn't exist and tells her he'll be guarding Shirayuki by himself and tells Aria to go somewhere and 'cool off'. Aria responds by taking out her guns and shooting at Kinki, calling him "stupid" multiplies times, but Kinji escapes unscathed.
With Aria out of the way, Shirayuki explains to Kinji how Hotogi are restricted to venture out of the shrine but she wanted to see the firework festivities. Later Kinji suggests that the two should go to the fireworks festivities, to which Shirauki agrees, knowing she’s breaking the Shrine’s rules. Later during that night, Shirayuki receives a text message that she decides to keep hidden. The following day at school, Shirayuki suddenly disappeared. With the help of Reki, Kinji was able to locate Shirayuki in the basement of a warehouse. While hiding, Kinji discovers Shirayuki negotiating with the hidden Durandal in order to protect the school. It is revealed that the text message and fake calls for help (from Ep. 6) were from Durandal. Kinji jumps in to rescue Skirayuku but is quickly pined down by Durandal. Luckily, Aria returns and is ready to face off against Durandal.
Characters[]
(in order of appearance)