“He admits to being shirtless in front of me!” Mari declared. “You were naked in the student council room, Ryuu…?” “See, Dazai boy? Even your childhood friend Aya is mortified by your perversion.” “Oh, no, no,” Aya reassured the president. “I was just thinking that there’s no need for him to strip in the student council room to look at his muscles. He already does that every morning before leaving his house…” “Ah, I see what you’re doing! Asserting your dominance as his close friend by letting us all know you live close and walk to school with him!” Mari shouted. “What? No, I didn’t mean it like that!” Ranko, still in the doorway, shot Ryuunosuke a frosty look. “So I gather Dazai boy lets out his inner pervert no matter where he is, whether at school or at home.” “No! I’m not a perv! I had my pants on the whole time!” “Even baring the upper body is not something you should be doing in this room, Dazai boy.” “Anyone other than Mari would’ve been grossed out to find you like that,” Aya added. “Ryuunosuke Dazai, I don’t mind if you’re gross. I’ll love you all the same,” Mari said affectionately. “I don’t want it! Are you ever going to let go of me, Abara?!” “Okay, okay.” Mari stopped clutching his clothes and moved away from him. “How unfortunate that Aya and the President have arrived, bringing our fun to a premature end. We’ll have to pick up where we left off later.” “No, there won’t be any more of this!” Confrontations like this had become a daily occurrence since Mari joined the student council. Ranko and Aya made their way to their chairs and sat down for the meeting, quite used to the others’ antics. Ranko sat at the head of the table on the far end of the room. Aya, the secretary, sat on the right side of the table, with Ryuunosuke the vice president and his assistant, Mari, on the left side. They took out notebooks and laptops and got to work. “Isurugi, do you know what’s happened to our treasurer?” Ryuunosuke asked, rubbing the base of his ring finger with the index finger of his other hand—an unconscious habit of his. “Owari hasn’t told me anything. Maybe he’s sick again?” “I guess. He’s always been sick a lot. We’ll have to make do without him.” Ranko walked over to the shelves and pulled out a folder. She turned to Ryuunosuke. “Dazai boy, I have a question.” It was her custom to refer to Ryuunosuke as “Dazai boy” even though she was only one year his senior and looked like an elementary schooler to boot. Ryuunosuke didn’t really like it, but he figured that it was her way of keeping him at a comfortable distance. “Sure, shoot.” “I can’t find the Nature Appreciation Festival folder here. Why is that?” “Ah, that project’s complete. I was going to report to you about it later.” “But we need approval from the ward office and Professor Tazumi…” “I went ahead and sorted it out already.” “Well, having a proactive subordinate like you makes my life easier. Getting you this job was the best decision I made. Cost me only ten canteen vouchers. You take care of all the tedious tasks.” “I’m glad you helped me get on the council. I’m happy to be your drudge.” “P-President! Doesn’t that violate the student council election regulations…?” Ranko shot Aya a smug look. “I assure you I haven’t done anything specifically forbidden by the regulations…” Then she yawned widely. “Yawning during our meeting…?” While it was normal for Ranko to seem low-energy, she looked oddly tired that day. She even had dark bags under her eyes. “Oh, excuse me. Things have been a little hectic for me lately.” “Hello? I have something actually important to bring up,” said Mari. She alone had nothing assigned to her and was half sprawled on the table. “I’m supposed to be the vice president’s assistant, but I have no work to do at all. He does everything by himself, leaving zero for me!” “If he can handle everything without help, then of course there’s nothing left for you. By the way, Dazai boy, mind finishing up Owari’s work as well? It’s been piling up. I’ve got someplace to be today, so I can’t stay long. Also, it’s too tedious.” “That last one’s the more important reason, huh…” “Hmph,” Mari huffed, eyeing Ranko. “Sure. I’ll take care of it.” “What? Ryuunosuke Dazai does anything if you just ask him? Aya, has he always been like this?” Mari asked. “Well… He helps out even without being asked…” “Why bother, Ryuunosuke Dazai?” “It’s no bother. If there’s something I’m able to do for others, I just do it. Makes sense to me.” “Doesn’t make sense to me, though,” Mari said with a pout. “Then why don’t you help him with Owari’s work, Abara?” asked Ranko. “You can use this room late into the evening. I’ll let the teachers know you’ll be here.” “No way! I have a life after school, you know!” Mari protested. “You have a part-time job or something?” “Something like that, yes. Girls have many secrets,” she said vaguely, then slammed both her hands on the table. “All I wanted to say is, you’re sacrificing yourself too much for others, Ryuunosuke Dazai! You go out of your way to help people even when they don’t deserve it.” “I see it as him having a virtuous character,” said Ranko. “Although, he does go overboard, like when he lent money to another student despite being broke. He even got a job to have money to lend to people in need…” “I’d just like him to…rely on me for a change sometimes. Eh, whatever…” “I never asked for your opinion on my way of life!” Ryuunosuke shouted. “I just… It’s like a—a hobby for me! Helping people is my hobby. I find people who need assistance, lend them a hand, and that makes me feel good. I volunteer and I work on the side, and everyone fusses over me for being an upstanding citizen. I just like it.” “Same defense as always,” Mari said, poking his face with one finger. “If you keep getting involved in other people’s trouble, one day, you’ll find yourself in way over your head.” Night had fallen over Kokonoe City. A helicopter flew in from the west. With dark camouflage and its anti-collision lights off, it blended into the night sky. It was unlikely that anyone would spot it from the ground. The helicopter carried five people. A girl in a white lab coat sat opposite from two guards armed with automatic rifles. Even though they were in peaceful Japan, the atmosphere in the helicopter was as tense as if they were in the middle of a war zone. The guards were military personnel who’d been selected from the elite soldiers trained to combat terrorists. The reason such specialists were needed was on board with them in the cargo hatch. A small container fastened with several belts was in that hatch. Its contents set everyone on edge, making the aircraft feel cramped. The youngest of the armed men couldn’t stand the tense silence any longer. “You’d think we were transporting a lion, with all these safety measures,” he joked, glancing at the container. “Your first time, Kuroi?” asked an older, bigger man. “Yeah. You do this all the time, Yanagida?” “Can’t say I do. Would be a relaxing trip if we were transporting a lion. It wouldn’t survive a shot from this.” The man lifted his rifle. “What, our cargo can’t be killed with a gun?” “…You didn’t read the brief, did you?” “No, no! Of course I did. Skimmed it at least. But it seemed too exaggerated…” “Can’t blame you for finding it hard to believe. But let me tell you, two generations ago when they had to deal with the dragon girl in America, they had to bring out tanks and fighter aircrafts.” “You can’t be serious.” “I am. And now get this: Our cargo’s dragon factor is far stronger than that one’s. All hell would break loose if she went out of control. Not to worry, though—she’s weakened and sedated.” “This mythical girl’s a real monster, huh?” “That’s a very unkind thing to say,” the third passenger, the girl in the white lab coat, interrupted. She’d been listening to the men’s conversation through her headset. “She’s going to be killed for what she is. A teenage girl is going to be put to death. How can you call her a monster?” She looked toward the container with pity in her eyes. “You should feel sorry for her.” Inside the container was Rinne Irako, sitting in a chair with the straitjacket on. The temperature inside the container, which was made from tungsten, was –60°C. A dragon factor suppressant was being delivered to her body via several tubes running into her back from a machine behind the chair. A human wouldn’t be able to survive under those conditions. But then again, nobody would even think of doing this to a human. The power she possessed was clearly feared to a ridiculous extent. “This mythical girl’s a real monster, huh?” “…” Irako’s ears twitched. Despite the extreme conditions in the container, she was alive, and although she was immobilized, her senses worked just fine. She heard what the others were saying despite the thick walls of the container and the deafening background noise of the helicopter’s rotor. Because her senses were sharper than normal for a human, she was the first to notice that something had changed. “…!” She wanted to call out a warning, but she couldn’t. The next instant, lightning struck the helicopter with a bluish flash, followed by thunder. The lightning strike ripped a gash in the helicopter, hitting Rinne’s container next and breaking it open. The helicopter began spinning uncontrollably. Rinne heard the men shouting. “No way… We got hit?! Was our route info leaked?!” “What the hell’s going on?!” “Hold on tight!” The belts keeping the container in place had snapped when the lightning hit. Centrifugal force generated by the helicopter’s spinning pushed the container out of the hatch, which had opened due to a system malfunction. Rinne saw the night sky through the crack in the damaged container. “…” The metal container that held Rinne was plummeting to the ground. “Loki’s tip on the flight path was right.” In a grove in Kokonoe Park in the western part of the city, a girl in a high-collared, long overcoat worn on top of white body armor was talking on her phone, watching the helicopter crash after the lightning strike knocked it off course. “Wow, that’s skill. The pilot must be a genius to control the fall like that. The crew might even survive the crash,” the girl commented as nonchalantly as if she was watching a fireworks display. She was distracted from the helicopter and started doing something on her phone. Around her, several people stood dressed in similar white body armor. “You landed a clear hit from quite a distance. Neat.” The girl praised a man holding a long cannon. “Thank you, Ritter,” he replied. The man was much older than the girl, but she seemed to be his superior. “That’s a prototype from our lab, no?” “Yes, it’s an artificially engineered factor artillery piece powered by the First Factor’s ability and modified for sniping. The factor-charged magazine is the first of its kind, allowing soldiers others than Kampfers to utilize factor powers. Its attack power and precision leave nothing to be desired. The Calamity Research Institute’s special armored helicopter was effectively defenseless against—” “Sorry, I don’t care,” the girl cut him off, waving dismissively with her free hand. “Oh, my apologies for rambling on.” “What I want to know is about the dragon girl.” “We’ve been able to confirm that the container fell out of the helicopter. But whether she survived a fall from that height…” “You get bears here, apparently.” “Er… Bears?” The man was confused by the abrupt change of topic. “An unarmed human is unlikely to win against a bear, no?” “I…would have to agree…” “But a mythical girl can kill a bear with her little finger.” “I see, but what does this have to do with…?” “What I’m saying is, she won’t die from a fall from that height. If there was any risk of that, do you think we’d be going ahead with this plan? Fortunately, mythical girls are tough enough to withstand any degree of rough handling.” The girl leaned back in a stretch, her golden hair swaying with her movements. “Excuse me, Ritter, but…you seem to be lacking focus on our mission…” “I wish I was flirting with my dearest right now instead of being stuck on this mission.” “With all due respect—” “Sheesh, I know! Even at my rank, I wouldn’t disobey the Order. Did you clear the area of civilians yet?” “Almost. It’s a wide area, but we reckon it’s ninety-six percent clear by now. Comms are all set up.” “What’s the dragon girl’s berserk status?” “According to Loki, it was stopped at phase one an hour ago through the application of suppressants and cryopreservation.” “’Kay. Instruct Team Two to remain vigilant and secure a safe retreat route.” “Roger. Any orders for the Kampfers?” “If I end up fighting, the enhanced humans will just get in the way. Have them provide support to Team Two,” she commanded, tapping on her smartphone furiously. “Sending messages to my dearest always makes me crave the spotlight. I’ll go and capture the dragon miss myself.” She brushed a stray hair away from her cheek. “What a sad affair, having to capture my doomed kin.” By the time Ryuunosuke finished up the student council work, it was already nighttime. The other student council members had left at the usual time to do their club activities or whatever else they had planned for the day, but Ryuunosuke dutifully stayed behind to complete the tasks Ranko had entrusted to him. He worked himself up into a document-processing frenzy and used that momentum to finish other remaining paperwork as well, leaving the room only when the janitor urged him to go home. The sky was clear, and the moon was shining brightly. Ryuunosuke went through Kokonoe Park—a large recreation and nature park with walking trails, a pond and a stream, a meadow, playground, and even a designated barbecue area. The boy strode across the grass, his path illuminated by lampposts. On his left-hand side was a small woodland, and on the right-hand side was the pond. He passed a sign warning people about perverts. During the day, the park was full of dog-walkers, but this late at night, there weren’t even any joggers. Walking through a deserted park at night might not be the safest thing to do, but for Ryuunosuke, it was a shortcut home. Kokonoe City was within the Tokyo Metropolitan area, but it wasn’t as populous as any of the big cities in the twenty-three special wards. Ryuunosuke’s house was in West Kokonoe, built on flat land surrounded by hills. There was very sparsely populated farmland just a short walk from the train station. A town with lots of nature around—that had a nice ring to it. It really didn’t feel like Tokyo. A curious thing about Kokonoe was that despite the fact not many people lived there, it had several parks. And there was always some roadwork going on, so the roads were smoother than in most places. “Huh?” Ryuunosuke heard a message notification from his phone. He took it out of the pocket of his blazer and saw it was from Mari. “There’s loads…” She was sending messages one after another and at lighting speed, asking if he was free. Ryuunosuke shuddered. “‘You’ve got to go out for ramen with me one of these days! I won’t take no for an answer!’ How many stickers did she follow that up with…? How thirsty is she for my attention?” He wondered for a while about how to reply. Eventually, he settled for a single stamp with a picture of a cartoon poop swirl saying, Good night. No sooner had he closed the messenger app than he heard a notification sound again. “She’s so fast to reply…” But it wasn’t a message from Mari this time. It was an alert from a news site. “Wait, I don’t remember signing up for updates from this site.” He wondered if he’d accidentally tapped something, subscribing without intending to. Upon opening the site, the top headline was about a killer being sentenced to death. Ryuunosuke remembered reading about the murders a few years earlier. Someone kindly lent a man money to help him with his debt, but he ended up killing not only his benefactor but also their family. He even set their house on fire. It was horrible. The article about the death sentence had a lot of comments from users. Ryuunosuke normally didn’t bother reading comments on news sites, but this time, he found himself scrolling through them. It’s the guy who killed that Good Samaritan, isn’t it? And they only sentenced him now? How many more years is he gonna be living off the taxpayers’ money? If I were on the jury, I’d have smashed the kill him button from the start. Finally closure for the victims’ friends and relatives. Ryuunosuke’s eyes lingered on the next comment. That guy’s human garbage, seriously, it began. It was the next line that Ryuunosuke couldn’t look away from. Some people don’t deserve to live. It was just an offhand comment under a news article, reflecting the general consensus about the case. A trite line of no importance. An insensitive thought made public. And yet these words displayed on the small screen of his phone deeply bothered Ryuunosuke. He thought about that statement, what it meant to him, but he quickly told himself to stop. He knew the answer already. Ryuunosuke swiped to close the browser and silenced his notifications. Were some people really so bad that they had to be killed? Ryuunosuke remembered what Mari said to him earlier at the student council meeting. “You go out of your way to help people even when they don’t deserve it.” “Even I wouldn’t help a person like that, though,” he said to himself. He pictured himself meeting someone everyone thought deserved to die. He imagined that person pleading for help. “If that happened, I’d…” It was a lie that helping people was a hobby to Ryuunosuke. He knew full well it went far beyond something that could be classified as a hobby. He had this obsessive sense of duty to help, even if his help wasn’t wanted or if it would frustrate or anger the person he insisted on helping. There must have been a reason he was like that, but despite all his soul-searching, he couldn’t come up with anything. A sudden flash of light split the sky, followed by a thunderous rumble that Ryuunosuke felt through his whole body. “Was that thunder? Is it going to rain? Damn, I didn’t bring an umbrella.” The sky was clear. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was nighttime, that would’ve literally been a bolt from the blue. Ryuunosuke scanned the sky but couldn’t see any clouds gathering. He did spot something unusual, though: a burning object in the sky, moving erratically. “Whoa… What the heck am I seeing?” His eyes lit up with the hope that he was at last witnessing a real UFO. As his eyes adjusted to observe the bright object in the sky, he was late to notice that it was going to crash down near him. “Wait, huh?!” It landed just a few meters away. “Yikes!” The force of the impact and sheer surprise knocked Ryuunosuke off his feet, and he fell on his butt. The thing that had dropped from the sky kicked up a cloud of dust, so for a moment, he couldn’t see anything. “Ugh! What’s going on today…?” He stood up, coughing. The dust slowly settled, and he could finally see what the thing was—a large container, partially crushed and broken open. Except that Ryuunosuke wasn’t looking at it, or at the crater it’d made on the ground where it fell. He was completely transfixed by the person inside it. Moonlight and starlight, along with the artificial sources in the city, illuminated the inside of the container, revealing a person sitting on a chair. She had long hair and looked so gorgeous, she could be crowned a world-class beauty, but her outfit did not suit her at all—it was a straitjacket. But the fact that this beautiful girl was in a straitjacket wasn’t nearly as shocking as the two horns growing from her head, pointing skyward. Ryuunosuke stared at them, and then his gaze slid down to a scaly tail with hard plates jutting from the base of her spine. Underdeveloped wings lacking membranes were growing out of her scapulae. Those weren’t body parts any human should possess, which meant the girl wasn’t human. The girl brought to mind a certain mythical creature. “A…dragon?” The girl looked human to a certain extent, but at the same time, she displayed traits characteristic of dragons from legends. Humans didn’t have wings, horns, or tails. They’d either lost them through the process of evolution or hadn’t evolved to have them at all. If this girl had them, she was more dragon than human. The dragon turned toward Ryuunosuke, and their eyes met. It was as if time stopped. Japan was a modern country, where scientific thinking explained all phenomena, supernatural creatures had been relegated to the realm of imagination, and legends of olden times were understood to be fictional fairy tales. The boy, Ryuunosuke Dazai. The girl, Rinne Irako. Was it a chance meeting, or had fate brought them together? That night, Ryuunosuke encountered a real mythical girl. He suddenly heard a voice that didn’t belong to anyone he knew. “Help as many people as you can, for the both of us.” In his mind, he saw rising flames, but that image quickly faded. Strangely, he felt as if he’d heard that voice and seen those flames before. But it was only for a moment. “You there.” The girl’s beautiful voice set time in motion again. Thoughts were speeding through Ryuunosuke’s head. She can’t be a dragon, come on. But then what is she? Is she human? Maybe she’s a cosplayer. But why would she be cosplaying here, in the middle of the night? Sitting in this metal box? No, it’s got to be some sort of incident…or accident? “Did you not hear me? I am talking to you. There is nobody else here.” She looked at him sharply, and the jumble of thoughts in his mind disappeared at once. “Huh? You’re talking to me? Right, of course. Wh-what do you want from me?” “I would have expected a humbler attitude… No matter. Come closer and pull this thing out of my back,” she commanded imperiously. It took some time for Ryuunosuke’s brain to process what she asked. He was just so shocked that she’d spoken to him. “What do you mean? Pull what out of your back…?” He looked at her with a puzzled frown. “The tube… Urgh…” “A-are you okay…?” She panted, unable to continue speaking. Upon closer inspection, beads of perspiration dotted her forehead and she was breathing heavily, appearing exhausted. “What’s going on…?” Ryuunosuke was still wary, but seeing that the girl was in pain, he couldn’t help but walk closer. He approached her as cautiously as if she were a large carnivorous beast bound with chains, stopping within an arm’s reach of her. “Fear not. I am not going to eat you.” She might have meant it as a joke, but somehow, it didn’t sound like it to Ryuunosuke. He slowly craned his neck to look at her back. “Yikes, what’s this…?” Four black conical funnels were sticking out of the straitjacket. One of them had a thick tube attached to it, which was connected to the girl’s chair. Three tubes were lying on the ground. They must have been ripped out by the impact when the container crashed. “You want me to pull this tube out?” “Yes.” Ryuunosuke crouched behind the girl. He grabbed the tube at the base with one hand, bracing his other against the girl’s back. He felt the warmth of her body through the thick fabric of the straitjacket. Ryuunosuke pulled at the tube forcefully. “Arrrgh…!” He stopped immediately when the girl screamed, her face twisted in pain. “S-sorry! Did I hurt you?” As hard as it was for him to believe, it seemed the tube was connected to her body. Ryuunosuke hesitated, unsure of what to do. If this was some special medical device, perhaps he shouldn’t be removing it. “Do not worry, pull it out. Do it in one go.” “Okay.” He made up his mind and pulled at the tube one more time, with all his strength. “Nnngh… Uh… Nguh!” The tube felt stuck inside her. Ryuunosuke pulled even harder, and it slowly began to come out. “Huff… Hngh!” He managed to pull it out. Like the other tubes, this one had a needle at the end. It was covered in blood. Some blood had splattered on Ryuunosuke’s blazer, but he didn’t mind. “A-are you okay?” “There is no need for concern… You have done well. I appreciate it.” She pushed against her bonds until the metal fastenings of the straitjacket shattered. Once her arms were free, she ripped the rest of the thick belts restraining her as easily as if they were worn-out rubber bands. Ryuunosuke watched with amazement, but by then, his sense of normalcy had been thrown so out of balance that he simply accepted that this girl was very strong. The girl leaned back and crossed her legs, eyeing Ryuunosuke haughtily. She made the plain chair look like a throne. “How many years has it been since my last descent…?” “…” The faint glow of streetlights thinned the darkness just enough for Ryuunosuke to see how dangerously beautiful the dragon girl was, and he gasped. She had long, glossy hair, and a beautiful, adorably doll-like face that somehow also emanated an austere dignity. Her beauty wasn’t as instantly dazzling as Mari’s, but it was in no way inferior. The dragon girl’s beauty was refined, a combination of cherubic softness with fierce elegance and nobility, like ice and fire. “Well,” she said, brushing off the strands of her bangs, which had gotten stuck to her sweaty forehead. “What is your name?” “Uh… What?” “I asked for your name. You helped me, and I wish to learn your name before the end.” Ryuunosuke was somewhat perturbed by how ominous that sounded. “My name is…Ryuunosuke Dazai.” “Ryuunosuke Dazai. A fine name. My name is Rinne. Rinne Irako. You need not remember my name. We will not meet again.” She stood from the chair, then stumbled. “Careful there!” Ryuunosuke wasn’t usually comfortable being close to girls, but this wasn’t an ordinary situation. He reached out with his left hand and caught the girl’s wrist. “Let go!” “Wha…? Ouch!” She felt so hot that he reflexively pulled his hand away. Rinne collapsed onto the ground. “I’m sorry,” he said. Ryuunosuke offered her his hand to help her up, but she ignored him. Her body wasn’t hot like from fever—to the boy, it had felt as if he’d touched red-hot iron. His palm was swollen, the skin red as if he’d been burned. A human couldn’t be so hot as to burn another. Rinne’s eyes gleamed with prickly hostility, not really directed at Ryuunosuke but the world in general. “Do not ever touch me without my permission.” She stood up shakily. Then she noticed something. “What is that…on your hand?” Ryuunosuke followed her gaze to his left hand. A ring of light had appeared on his ring finger. “What’s this…?” he said, surprised. Then the ring of light vanished as if it had never been there. “It cannot be… Why would you have the…?” Rinne began but stopped when she heard a voice nearby. “This is V. I’ve located the dragon. She’s accompanied by one civilian. I will follow the standard response protocol. Argh, let’s get this done and over with, so I can go and get my ramen at Saburou’s…” A girl emerged from the dark grove of trees. She was wearing a black cloak over white body armor. Her long golden pigtails bounced up and down as she walked. “Wait a second…” “No way…” Even in the darkness, Ryuunosuke instantly recognized the pretty blond girl. “What are you doing here…?” “Why are you here…?” Their voices overlapped. “Abara…” “Ryuunosuke Dazai…” Ryuunosuke was the more shocked of the two, his mouth hanging open. He didn’t understand why Mari, whom he had seen at the student council meeting a few hours earlier, was in the park at night. “You are Abara, right…?” It was her, but Ryuunosuke had to ask to make sure, not because reality was getting too weird for his brain to cope with, but because her appearance had changed somewhat. Mari’s mouth was slightly open, and he could see two sharp teeth peeking out, like a carnivorous animal’s fangs. Mari’s ears weren’t rounded as usual, but pointy and elongated. Those were the only differences, but after seeing the dragon girl, Ryuunosuke instantly thought that Mari looked like another mythical creature. “Are you a…vampire?” Vampires were nocturnal monsters that were able to transform into bats or wolves. They had no reflection, slept in coffins, hated sunlight and garlic, and used their sharp fangs to attack people and drink blood. Mari, though, seemed perfectly at ease in sunlight, and her favorite food was a hearty bowl of ramen topped with a heap of garlic. She didn’t normally have fangs, and Ryuunosuke had, of course, never seen her drinking blood. And yet she looked so much like a vampire. “First a dragon, now a vampire? It’s still a while until Halloween, you know…” Ryuunosuke couldn’t keep up with all the extraordinary events of that day. Rinne also seemed thrown by her unexpected encounter with the boy. “Ryuunosuke Dazai… Don’t tell me you’re a member of the Calamity Research Institute…?” Mari asked hesitantly. “The what now?” “Right, of course you’re not. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time… So much for clearing civilians from the target area…” Mari tutted. “Now, you’ll just do as I say.” “Wh-what do you want?” “Come over here.” “I’m not moving an inch until you explain what’s going on, Abara. Why do you look like this? Is it some sort of cosplay? And if you’re going to cosplay, do it in Shibuya, not in a park at night.” “Sorry, but I’m not authorized to explain the situation to civilians. Hurry up and come over to me. If the target resists capture, it’s going to end up in a fight. No, it could even escalate to war.” “What on earth are you talking about, Abara—?” Ryuunosuke stopped abruptly when Rinne stepped in front of him. He couldn’t tell if her intention was to interrupt the conversation or protect him. “You have the gall to chitchat with the boy as if I am not here.” “Hmph!” Mari snorted. “You’re not going to obediently surrender, huh?” “You are a mythical girl with the vampire factor, are you not?” “…So what if I am?” the vampire replied to the dragon rudely. “I am Rinne Irako, a mythical girl with the dragon factor.” “I didn’t ask.” Mari cocked her head at Rinne’s sudden introduction. “It pains me to have to ask you this, but have you not been taught any manners?” Rinne asked in response to Mari’s bluntness. “What are you getting at? Trying to rile me up, huh?” “I would have thought it a common courtesy to introduce oneself to the opponent before a duel.” “What are you, a medieval general?” “Ah, my mistake. I should have gathered from your daft appearance that you are a simpleton. I must apologize for overestimating your IQ.” “I-I’m going to freaking tear you to pieces!” Mari shouted, a blue vein popping out on her temple. Meanwhile, Rinne remained calm. Or at least, she was expressionless. “I was not trying to…provoke you…,” Rinne replied. Her breathing was shallow, laborious. Beads of sweat rolled down her face. Even just standing upright seemed like a lot of effort for her. “Fine, whatever. I’ll tell you my name so that you’ll know who defeated you. I’m Mari Vlad Abara, a vampire mythical girl.” “Mari Vlad Abara. A name I shall remember.” “Rinne Irako… You annoy the hell out of me, but I’ll remember your name, too.” The atmosphere became so thick with tension, you could cut it with a knife. Sensing that each side was waiting for the other to make the slightest move, Ryuunosuke hurriedly stepped in to stop the impending violence. “H-hey, girls. You’re not really going to fight, right?” “You stay out of this. Step away,” Rinne said, grabbing him by his belt. “Whether it is my destiny to lose or win, I do not know, but I will not surrender without a fight. Besides…an encounter between mythical girls with conflicting interests does not lead to a simple struggle.” Rinne roughly pulled on his belt. “It leads to war.” “Aaah!” That quick tug was enough to send Ryuunosuke flying. He curled up defensively and rolled when he hit the ground. The girl was about his age, and smaller than him, but she had flung him as if he were a stuffed toy. To think she was able to do that in her condition, struggling to stay upright. Ryuunosuke couldn’t believe it. “You’d better listen to the half-dead dragon, Ryuunosuke Dazai. This isn’t a place for humans right now. Be good and go take a seat somewhere.” “But why do you have to fight?! What’s the reason? Tell me, because I don’t see any!” “A reason…?” “Why do we have to…?” They both reacted as if he was the one not making any sense. “The only reason we need is that we’re both here,” Rinne said. Mari raised her arm to the sky. “Let’s change into something more comfortable! Immortal Queen!” On that cue, Mari’s clothes began to transform. They unraveled, turning into bloodred threads that wove together into a crimson formal dress, opera gloves a tone darker, and scarlet pumps with high heels. A red tiara appeared on Mari’s head, eye-catching against her blond hair. The skirt of her dress fluttered in a gust of wind. She looked beautiful and majestic, elegant yet menacing, refined yet showy. “Is this your Valkyrie Dress…?” Rinne asked. “That’s right! My special Valkyrie Dress, Immortal Queen. Why don’t you put on yours? A girl’s got to look her best on the battlefield. I’ll wait.” Rinne shook her head. “I am ready.” “If you say so. I guess nobody would be so stupid as to let you make off with a Valkyrie Dress or any weapons. You’ve been tranquilized, too. You’re not going to complain it’s not fair that I’m attacking you in your sorry state?” “It is not unfair to use one’s advantages in battle.” “Good, we agree on something. Just so you know, if you surrender and promise to be good, I won’t hurt you too much.” “You must be delirious to think such an offer would tempt me.” “Fine, I’ll pound you into pulp. It’s been something of a dream for me to just go at it with a dragon.” Rinne pointed at Mari’s face. “You have a high nose bridge.” “Huh? So what? My nose is cute.” “I shall remodel your face to make it even cuter.”
Chapter 3
30 min read