Chapter 7

CHAPTER 3 Dragon Pandemonium at School Project Code Name: Dragon Babysitter. “I would like you to join the Dragon Babysitter Project in a support role,” Ranko had said to Ryuunosuke before he passed out. “As a soul linker, you are an extremely valuable resource to the Calamity Research Institute. The Order will want you just as much. By living together with Rinne, you will be able to react to the slightest signs of her going berserk and stop it, and she will keep you safe from the Order. If the ring’s effect is enhanced by your proximity, it’s best for you two to stick close.” The Dragon Babysitter Project involved monitoring the berserk-suppressing effects of the ring over time, with the end goal being the permanent eradication of the mythical factor. “By the way, I’ll also be moving in with you, as emergency medical support and project supervisor.” “What? I’ll have you living in my house, too?” “Why are you giving me attitude? Don’t want me as a roommate? I saw it; I saw you cringe just now. You’ve made me so sad. My feelings are irreparably hurt. And here I thought we were friends.” “Don’t put words in my mouth. I never said anything about not wanting you to move in!” Immediately after that, she shone that strange light into his eyes again, and he woke up in his house. “Right, I remember our conversation now, and everything that led up to it… But am I seriously sharing the place with two girls? My house is too small for so many people…” The inventor and supervisor of the Dragon Babysitter Project, Ranko, went to the bathroom to have a shower after Rinne came out. The amenities in Ryuunosuke’s house were all quite old, and it was a tricky job to get the shower temperature right. Rinne must have washed herself in pretty hot water, because as soon as Ranko turned the tap on, she screamed. With Ranko in the bathroom, the living room became quiet. Rinne’s prickly aura was putting Ryuunosuke off from starting a conversation with her. This is so awkward… Ryuunosuke—now changed into his school uniform—was pacing around the living room, unnerved by the silence. He glanced over at Rinne, who was sitting at the low dining table. I’m just not good at speaking with girls… It’s different with the student council; we can talk about our tasks, but what can I talk about with others? I’ve no idea what girls even think about. Rinne was sitting on her knees, her back straight. She was also dressed in the West Kokonoe High uniform. She’s actually really cute… No, she’s a beauty. Rinne Irako was a strange girl. With mannerisms as dignified as if she were a knight or a samurai, she had an air of mystery around her. When she was beginning to go berserk, her beauty was ephemeral and dangerous, like a melting icicle. Calm like this, she was as adorable as a vanilla ice-cream manjuu. Her mysterious beauty was enhanced further by the neatness of the school uniform. Her straight and proper posture at the table was enough to make the atmosphere in the small room formal. “Ryuunosuke.” “Bwah?!” His voice betrayed him. He wasn’t prepared to be spoken to. “Your anxious fidgeting is irritating. Sit down.” “Huh? Oh…” “Sit down.” “S-sure…” Unable to resist her commanding tone, he sat down opposite her at the table. She looks so different from when she was duking it out yesterday… Rinne didn’t have horns or a tail. It seemed unthinkable that this girl had been brutally fighting just the day before, shooting light beams and all that. Ryuunosuke thought about how he’d found himself in this bizarre situation—suddenly having two pretty girls as roommates—but flustered as he was, he accepted this new reality as something he’d agreed to for a good cause. He couldn’t go back on his word. He did worry about Rinne, though. While it was necessary for him and Rinne to stick together, cohabitating with a dude like him might be stressful for her. He’d have to be very careful to treat her with consideration and not make her uncomfortable. “…” He furtively shot her another glance. In contrast, she didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the room-sharing. She barely seemed to notice him at all. Her callous and prickly attitude made Ryuunosuke wonder if she hated him. He couldn’t blame her if she did after he accidentally walked in on her naked in the changing room. He gathered up his courage to talk to her. “So, Irako…” “Call me Rinne,” she said quietly, but with insistence. “We are a wed couple, Ryuunosuke.” “You mean, we’re soul linked…” “Call me by my first name without reserve.” Ryuunosuke cleared his throat. “Ahem… All right, Ms. Rinne it is.” She looked at him sharply. “No ‘Miss.’ Just Rinne.” “Rinne… I wanted to ask you…are you really okay with living with me? Doesn’t it bother you? Because if you don’t like this, you should say so. Never mind that it’s part of this project. It’s better for both of us to be honest instead of putting up with something we don’t want. I can convince President to—” “No.” She shook her head slightly. “I do not mind.” “Don’t worry about hurting my feelings or anything. It must be unpleasant for a young girl to be forced to live with a guy she barely knows. Especially in a small house like mine.” “Listen, Ryuunosuke.” “Y-yes?” “I chose this. And the reason…is not because we are now bound together by your vows. It is because…” She shook her head, as if fighting with herself over whether to tell him the reason or not. Her expression didn’t visibly change, but Ryuunosuke sensed she was feeling embarrassed. “Have I done something…?” “I…,” Rinne continued, having made up her mind to be frank with him. “Yes…?” he encouraged her on. Rinne looked away from him, her cheeks reddened. “I love you.” Ryuunosuke crossed his arms, trying to process if he’d really just received a love confession. “Hmmmmmmmmm…” He cocked his head, thinking deeply about what Rinne might mean, because it surely couldn’t have been a love confession. They’d only met the previous night. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with him so fast. He reasoned that he must have misunderstood her. “Er… Sorry, I don’t see why you’d feel like this about me… Oh, wait. Did you mean ‘love’ as in ‘like a lot,’ as a friend?” “No, I meant that I love you as a person of the opposite sex. As a man. I have romantic feelings for you, or so I believe. It is confusing for me, too, since I have never been in love before. The feelings arose last night, when you saved me, risking your own life. I am certain that I am not mistaking gratitude for love.” “But wait, falling in love with me just because I saved you is—” “It is what happened. I do not care if you accept my love, and neither am I interested in knowing how you feel about me. I simply put my feelings into words so that you would know that I am not in the least discomforted by the project. Living together is what I would have wished for. I wanted you to know this, but let us drop this subject. It is embarrassing to talk about it further.” Rinne took a deep breath after saying all that in one go, and she turned her flushed face away from him. Ryuunosuke had been under the impression that Rinne was the quiet type, so her machine-gun monologue was both surprising and overwhelming for him. “Wh-why are you not saying anything?! A smile or any other sign of happiness would be welcome! Or perhaps…” Rinne’s voice grew quieter, and uncertainty appeared in her eyes. “Do you think me not good enough for you?” “What…? No, of course not…” “Well, now that we have cleared that up,” she said, evidently relieved that he didn’t seem to have anything against her. “Thank you for inviting me, an undeserving dragon girl who might end up destroying the world, into your life.” She bowed gracefully to him, touching the tatami mat with her fingertips. “Uh… Um… The pleasure’s mine…” He was flattered but also embarrassed, so he looked away from her at the grubby low ceiling. “Well, you know… How to put it…? I bet lots of guys would pay a fortune to swap with me and share the roof with a cute girl like you.” “C-cute…?!” Ryuunosuke regretted saying that and worried she’d imagine he had dirty intentions toward her. He looked at her with concern… “…?!” …and froze with his eyes open wide. “I—I had never have thought of myself that way… Although, I will agree that my appearance is not unappealing…” Rinne was blushing, covering her cheeks with her hands bashfully. But that wasn’t what had surprised Ryuunosuke. “Um… Rinne…” “Yes?” He pointed at her head. “Your horns are out.” “Huh?!” She frantically reached up to touch her head, then felt the two horns. “Eek?!” She covered her horns with her hands and hid her head under the table. “My apologies… It does happen rarely, when I am under the influence of strong emotions…” “Well, watch out when you’re at school. But why are you hiding from me now?” “I do not wish you, the man my heart has chosen, to see me in that ugly form…” “You think your horns are ugly?” “Do you not…find it repulsive that a girl has horns and a tail…?” “What? Not at all! I think they look really cool.” He didn’t say that just to make her feel better. He honestly thought her dragon parts were awesome. “‘Cool’…?” She peeked out shyly from under the table. “The first time I saw you, it was a bit of a shock, but what’s more awesome than a cute girl with dragon horns and a tail? Boys are suckers for all things dragon, like sew-on dragon patches on their schoolbags and stuff like that.” “Is that so?” “Absolutely!” “You seem sincere… So my dragon features do not disgust you?” “No, I love them!” “You…love them… I see… Tee-hee… Tee-hee-hee…” She smiled, wiping a little tear from the corners of her eyes. It finally hit Ryuunosuke that Rinne felt inferior because of how she looked. He could understand why. Complexes about one’s appearance were so widespread in society, and Rinne had features no normal human had. As an adolescent girl, she was very conscious about her body. “You have strange tastes.” “I wouldn’t mind examining your dragon features in more detail sometime. Ha-ha, just kiddin—” “I will show you now,” she said and proceeded to take off her blazer. “Wh-what? Now?!” Ryuunosuke protested without thinking, shocked at her sudden undressing. “What is the matter? You were just saying that you wished to see my tail and wings.” “I was just joking… Besides, you don’t need to undress for that…” “I do need to do that, or else my uniform will tear. I would rather not destroy my new clothes… Unless you wish to see them ripped to pieces when I transform?” Her mythical-creature body parts grew as an extension of her own body when she transformed, so of course, she’d wreck any clothes she was wearing. “Er… No, I don’t want you to destroy your clothes! Just take them off. No, wait, what am I saying, don’t, it was a joke—” “I understand. You are disgusted by me after all…” She looked at him with hurt like an abandoned puppy. Ryuunosuke couldn’t bear it. “Argh… I mean, I said it as a joke, but now I can’t wait to see your dragon parts!” he bellowed. “You are hard work, Ryuunosuke. If you are so keen to see me, I will do my best to please you.” She energetically resumed undressing. She folded her blazer and put it on the floor next to her. Next, she removed the ribbon around her neck. Then she started unfastening the buttons of her blouse. She looked so sexy doing that, Ryuunosuke had to avert his gaze. It was ironic that he was acting prudish after telling her to undress in front of him. Rinne took off her blouse, remaining in her bra. The straps left an opening on her back, leaving space for her dragon wings. When Rinne reached for the hooks fastening her skirt, Ryuunosuke stopped her. “Sorry, do you mind keeping your skirt on?” “As you wish.” He said that to stop her from exposing her panties, but it ended up sounding as if he was a perv with a skirt fetish. And so Rinne was sitting on the floor opposite her pervy, fetishistic roommate, her upper body naked but for the bra. “Could I… Could I ask you to close your eyes for a moment? I would not yet feel comfortable being seen while I am transforming.” “Oh, okay.” Ryuunosuke closed his eyes. He actually wanted to see her transformation sequence, but he had to respect her wishes. Showing someone parts that were normally kept hidden could be embarrassing, so that made sense… Ryuunosuke thought she should’ve asked him to close his eyes when she was taking her clothes off, too, but he didn’t say anything, being the guilty party here. He heard noises like joints creaking and really wanted to open his eyes, but he fought his curiosity. “I…I am ready now. You may look.” Ryuunosuke waited just a moment longer before opening his eyes. In front of him was a beautiful girl in a skirt and a bra. Crucially, she now possessed extra body parts—dragon horns, wings, and a tail. Just like the other night. “Oooh…” Despite having seen her like that before, he couldn’t help gasping in awe.