Chapter 8

“Well…? Say something.” “Sorry, it’s just so amazing, I was speechless…” “Really…? I am pleased that you like what you see.” “That’s good…” “Would you like to…touch them?” “Yeah… Huh, for real?!” Ryuunosuke was totally bewildered by her offer. He was feeling terribly shy, and also guilty for having started this. Touching a girl’s body was something entirely new to him. But he was incredibly curious about the dragon parts, and he had to be brave and help Rinne overcome her complexes. Curiosity won in the end. “Are you sure you’re okay with me touching them?” “The admiration in your eyes convinced me. I will allow it as a special favor for you only, Ryuunosuke.” “I see, thanks…” He sat down next to Rinne, noticing she was being bashful. “All right, then. I’m going to touch you…” “Please proceed. I…g-grant you my permission…” Ryuunosuke picked up her thick tail and put it over his knees. “Wow, so this is what a dragon tail feels like. It’s heavy. Reminds me of the python I held once at a zoo a long time ago. And you can move it?” “Y-yes, of course…” She wiggled her tail in a snakelike motion. It was strong, and Ryuunosuke felt as if he was holding a large, very lively fish. He rubbed the tip of her tail, curious about the texture. “Mngh…,” Rinne moaned softly, shifting her position. Ryuunosuke touched her tail until his curiosity was satisfied. Next, he turned his attention to her wings and horns, putting his hands on them without inhibition. Rinne wriggled slightly whenever he stroked her wings or the tips of her horns, but Ryuunosuke didn’t notice. “Do you have inverted scales on your neck? And does touching them make you furious, like in the legends? Inverted dragon scales are rare items in some games, you know?” He reached for her neck. “N-no, stop. Do not touch me there…!” Ryuunosuke tried to give her a little scratch on the neck, as you would with a dog or a cat, but no sooner had his fingers grazed her than Rinne shoved him away. “Ouchie!” Ryuunosuke fell onto his back. When he sat up, he saw that Rinne’s dragon parts had disappeared, and she was putting her blouse back on. Her hands were shaking so much, she couldn’t do the buttons, so she gave up, leaving the blouse open. She turned to look at Ryuunosuke, breathing heavily. “Um, Rinne? Are you angry with me? You didn’t like me touching you?” Rinne grabbed him by the shoulders. Her cheeks were flushed, there were beads of perspiration on her forehead, and she was panting. “My apologies. I had to reabsorb my dragon features so as not to accidentally injure you with my horns.” “Ow, you’re squeezing too tight—it hurts… What’s wrong…?” She pushed him down onto the floor and sat on top of him, pinning his arms to the ground with her legs. “Whoa?! What are you doing? I’m sorry if I did something bad!” “You have done a very bad thing. Touching the inverted scales on my neck when I am in my dragon form sends me into this feverish state. I am feeling a little frisky.” “You mean ‘furious,’ right?!” “I assure you I am not at all upset with you.” “But what the heck? I really can’t move! You’re too strong! Dragon power is badass! You don’t need your horns out to have superhuman strength?!” Rinne’s weight was perfectly average for a girl her age, and her build was petite, not athletic. And yet no matter how hard Ryuunosuke struggled to free himself, he couldn’t move at all. Rinne bent over to whisper in his ear. Her long hair tickled his face, and a sweet smell enveloped him. He could see her full, glossy lips parting out of the corner of his eye. “It is my turn now.” Her whisper was clear and spellbindingly alluring. “You have touched my body, so it stands to reason that I should have the opportunity to touch yours, too, would you not agree?” “Touch WHAT?!” She began to deftly unbutton his shirt with one hand. “Do not worry, it will not hurt. Men enjoy this, Ranko told me. Count the stains on your ceiling to distract yourself, and it will soon be over…” “What in the world has Ranko been teaching you?!” Rinne began tracing a shape on his chest with her dainty index finger. Ryuunosuke thought for a moment that little heart shapes appeared in her eyes. “I’d like to take things a little slower, please!!!” “Oh, do not be such a baby. Stop resisting and let me ravage you already.” “Aaaaaaargh! H-heeelp! President! Dr. Akedaaa!” Right after he called her, Ranko came back from the bathroom. “Why are you kicking up such a fuss so early in the morning?” She was naked. “Put your clothes on!” “You’re not making any sense. It was you who called me. I hurried to see what the problem was, and you yell at me?” “Argh, forget it! If you could just help me, that’d be great!” “Rinne, what are you doing to him?” “Ryuunosuke said he wanted to touch my tail and horns, and I complied. Yet he went further and touched my inverse scales, so now I am in the middle of satisfying my own urge to touch his body.” “It was your idea, Rinne! You offered to let me touch you!” “You be quiet!” “Hmm…” Ranko stroked her chin, thinking. “The moral of the story is: You reap what you sow. Everybody knows that you do not touch the inverse scales of a dragon.” “Does everyone know that?!” Rinne pinned him down even harder, and it was clear that he would receive no sympathy from the coldly logical Ranko. The dragon girl reached for the last button of his shirt. “Whether you want this or not is irrelevant,” she said. “It is compulsory. Surrender to my power.” “‘Can’t stop this violence with reasoning’—is that what you’re saying?!” “You saved me, Ryuunosuke. And you touched my special parts… What are you, if not my mate?” “‘Mate’?!” “It means one of a pair, or a sexual partner of an animal. Rinne’s saying you’re basically husband and wife,” Ranko piped up. “I didn’t ask you for an interpretation!” “With a mate possessing such low cognitive powers, I do worry for our future…” “Even a psychic would be hella confused in this situation!” “Please calm down. We are a wed couple, and our souls are already linked. Now we only need to link our bodies. We will be skipping a few steps on our way toward bonding, but does that really matter? I do not consider it a problem. We can iron out the kinks later. You can trust me with this—I have crammed the theory into my head.” “Theory of what?! President! Don’t just grin and watch—help me! Please help!” “Everything’s going to be okay, Dazai boy. I have taken care of Rinne’s you-know-what education, personally selecting the very best books on the subject for her. She knows the theory.” “And what about ethical considerations for the test subject—me?! Also, get dressed already! You’ll catch a cold, walking around naked after a bath!” Suddenly, Ryuunosuke heard someone turn the knob of his front door, and the door opened. “Ryuu? Is everything okay?” It was the worst timing ever. A chill ran down Ryuunosuke’s spine when he heard that voice. He looked up at the clock on the wall. He always walked to school with Aya Isurugi, his neighbor and childhood friend, but it wasn’t yet the time they usually left together. “What’s with all the noise? We could hear you screaming from my house. I brought you something to eat. I know you’ve been skipping breakfast because you’re broke,” she called to him from the entrance hall. That morning had been so crazy, Ryuunosuke had forgotten about Aya. Normally, he’d be over the moon if she brought him breakfast, but that particular morning, he wished she hadn’t turned up. “Stop, Isurugi! Don’t come into the living room!” “What? What’s going on with you today, Ryuu…? Oh…” Aya, in her school uniform and with a reusable shopping bag filled with food, stopped in her tracks right after entering the living room. Let’s objectively consider what sight she’d been exposed to. There was the pretty much stark-naked student council president. A young woman she had never seen before was straddling her childhood friend, evidently stripping him of his clothes. And lastly, her childhood friend was lying on his back with his shirt open. “Er…” She froze, and who could blame her? As far as she’d known, she was the only girl close to Ryuunosuke, so finding him in the company of one naked and one half-naked girl was quite a shock. “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!” she finally squealed in a voice Ryuunosuke had never heard from her before, covering her mouth. “Oh, it’s Isurugi. Hello.” “Another female intrudes on me and the man who has wed me…” Ryuunosuke felt defeated. All he could do was mitigate the damage that had already been done. He took a deep breath. “Isurugi, I can explain this.” In the end, Ryuunosuke managed to get Aya to believe him. He told her that Ranko and Rinne were half sisters with different fathers. After remarrying, Ranko’s father and their mother worked as researchers at a pharmaceutical company until her untimely death in an accident. Rinne lived with her dad abroad until he died, too, and then she came to Japan to move in with Ranko, but they got kicked out from the apartment Ranko had been renting. With nowhere else to go, they had come to stay at Ryuunosuke’s house—he was actually their distant relative. Rinne would be going to West Kokonoe High starting that day. She didn’t know much about Japanese customs and social rules, because she had spent a long time in a hospital abroad due to a medical condition. The scene Aya had witnessed was just the result of a cultural misunderstanding—that was all. That’s what Ryuunosuke told Aya. It was all made-up, of course, but that was the “official” background story they’d be going with. Except that he hadn’t had the time to brief Rinne about it, which predictably led to problems. While he was desperately trying to sell the story to Aya, quickly stringing ideas together, Rinne would suddenly say something weird, and he had no idea if she was doing that on purpose to make it difficult for him or if she was just being slow. Aya would then question him, and he’d brush it off somehow. Ranko stayed out of the conversation, as if it didn’t concern her. “Ryuunosuke is my mate.” “Y-your what?! Ryuu, what is she talking about?!” “Rinne, you’re phrasing it in a way that invites misunderstandings!” “He has wed me.” “Wed you?! Ryuu, what is she talking about?!” “Rinne, you’re doing this again—wrong phrasing!” “By the way, Ryuunosuke, I am getting hungry.” “She’s hungry? Ryuu, what is she talking about?!” “She’s just hungry! This, for once, isn’t anything weird!” It was grueling, but eventually, Ryuunosuke convinced Aya that nothing untoward had been going on in his house. The reason for Ranko’s nakedness wasn’t stated, but then again, Aya didn’t ask. Once the situation calmed down, Aya put together breakfast, and all four of them ate together. Aya’s first impression of Rinne wasn’t great, and at first, there was some awkwardness between them, but soon enough, they warmed up to each other. Aya had a caring personality and always saw the best in people, so she made friends quickly. “Okay, we’re going now,” Ryuunosuke called to Ranko from the entrance hall. Ranko was skipping school that day to take care of something at home, she said. Ryuunosuke guessed she would be busy with her research work. “Have a good day,” Ranko replied, walking to the front door to see the three of them off. Nobody noticed the complex mix of emotions in her eyes as she looked at Rinne getting ready to go to school, dressed in her uniform again. “Rinne,” she said just as the girl started walking away. Rinne turned and waited. After a brief pause, Ranko said to her, “Have fun.” “I shall!” Rinne nodded with determination. She had never been to school before. “School will be something new for me. I shall make the most of it.” It didn’t show on her face, but Ryuunosuke sensed she’d been filled with anticipation since morning. “You didn’t go to school where you lived before?” he asked. “No. But I had received standard education at the facility.” “No way, you’ve never been to a school before?!” Ryuunosuke suddenly regretted touching that topic when Aya was around. “Er… Her, um, her situation’s been pretty unusual…” “Ah, her medical condition…” Aya looked so sad thinking about it. Ryuunosuke thought she was a really good person, and he felt like crap for having to lie to her. “Hurry, or I will leave you behind!” Rinne called out. “What? You don’t even know the way!” School would be an entirely new experience for Rinne, and she must have been terribly excited about it. She started running with a spring in her steps, like a happy little girl, toward an intersection with poor visibility, warning signs about children crossing, and school-zone markings painted on the asphalt. “Don’t run on the road—it’s dangerous.” “I am not a child, Ryuunosuke. I know how to keep saf—” Her voice was drowned out by the screech of a truck braking suddenly, the tires rubbing against the asphalt. The ground shook as the truck collided with Rinne. A truck going sixty kilometers per hour hitting a girl weighing maybe forty-five kilograms could only have one result. Even a preschooler would have no doubts as to what would happen. It came down to the simple laws of physics. Ryuunosuke froze in horror. Blood drained from his face, which tensed almost painfully, and his balls retreated upward. It’s my fault… The truck… Reincarnation… Is the driver okay? It’s my fault… It’s an accident… What will I say to President…? It’s my fault… Jumbled thoughts were racing in his head. He didn’t want to see the gruesome aftermath of the collision… “I… I did not see you coming…” …and he didn’t, because there wasn’t much to see, except for a rather surprised Rinne standing with one hand braced against the front of the truck. Mythical girls were an exception to rules that bound ordinary humans. The front of the truck was caved in, and the surface of the road was cracked and broken like an ice sheet under Rinne’s feet. Her uniform had gotten a little dusty, but otherwise, she was perfectly fine. Rinne’s cute looks made Ryuunosuke forget that she had abilities surpassing any other extant life-form. Even if the truck had hit her head-on, she’d probably be fine. The truck driver was still in his seat, absolutely petrified. A crowd of onlookers began to gather, attracted by the sound of the crash. “What is it?” “Was there an accident?” “Has anyone… Has anyone called for an ambulance yet? And the police?” It was the peak of the morning commute. There were lots of people around, and an incident like that was bound to attract attention. “Um, Ryuu… Is it just me, or did Rinne stop the truck with her han—?” “What? No, no! The truck stopped just in time! Thank goodness for that! Rinne, I told you to be careful on the road! Ha-ha… Ha-ha… Ha-ha-ha-ha!” The driver seemed unhurt, but just in case, Ryuunosuke took a mental note of the number plate and the company name written on the side to report to Ranko later. He then put one arm around Rinne and another around Aya, then quickly ran from the scene. Ryuunosuke and Aya gave Rinne a thorough tour of the school before stopping at the teachers’ room, and then they headed to their classroom without Rinne. Rinne was in the same class as them, 2-B, but first, she had to go meet her homeroom teacher on her own. Ryuunosuke sat down in his seat and rested his cheek in his hand. He had gone to Mari’s classroom to check on her, but she wasn’t there. What was I expecting…? Like Ranko, Mari was only posing as a student. Now that the Order’s plan to capture Rinne had failed and, to make matters worse, Ryuunosuke found out about Mari’s true identity, she probably had no reason to return to the school. As a member of the Dragon Babysitter Project, Ryuunosuke was Mari’s enemy, but it didn’t feel like that to him. He still thought of her as his fellow student council member and his junior. It made him a bit sad to think he might never see her again. “She didn’t have any hard feelings, I think… She’s not a bad person,” he muttered to himself. He wanted to soul link with her, too, to stop her from going berserk someday, but Ranko had told him to hold off until she made more progress with the Sacred Sealing Ring research. But then again, he wouldn’t be able to link with Mari anyway if she stopped coming to school. He had no way of finding her. He idly tuned in to a random conversation his ears picked out from the surrounding chatter. “Oh, Yukachi, did you hear that a transfer student is joining our class?” “Really? Hey, that’s new. Are they a looker? Girl or boy?” “I don’t know, I just heard Micchan talking about a transfer student.” The girls were referring to Rinne. People already know about her joining our class? She was only enrolled a day ago… No, less than that. Normally, you wouldn’t be able to transfer to a new school in just a day… President must have pulled some strings. I guess she has some authority over the school. Poor teacher, having to deal with a sudden change like that… The Calamity Research Institute works fast, getting Rinne a uniform in her size in such a short time. The Calamity Research Institute was a secret organization covering up phenomena like UFO or cryptid incidents from the public, though. Enrolling a new student in a public school in less than a day must have been easy for them. The homeroom chime sounded briefly, and the homeroom teacher came into the classroom. The teacher, a woman around thirty years old who always looked tired, seemed even more beat that day. “Hello, I have some unexpected news… Unexpected not just for you guys… So it seems we’ve got a transfer student who’ll be with us starting from today.” An excited murmur rippled through the class. “Please come in, Irako.” The classroom door opened. I wonder if Rinne’s going to be nervous. It’d be kind of funny to see her panic. Nah… She’s the type to say, “Be grateful you get to have me in your class!” But maybe she’ll just go with the standard “Hello. I’m Rinne Irako. Nice to meet you,” and play it cool… Ryuunosuke waited, still resting his cheek in his hand. At last, she entered the room. Her face was as neutral as usual. She walked oddly, though, as if on stilts. Total stage fright! She was clearly very tense. Her neutral face wasn’t nonchalant; it was hiding fear. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was pressed into a tight line, and her fingers quivered. Actually, she was shaking all over. Ryuunosuke thought she looked more like a baby bunny thrown into a carnivorous animal’s cage than a dragon. “Irako? Um, no need to be scared…” The teacher tried to encourage her. “Eep!” Rinne squeaked, startled. “Will you tell everyone your name…? It’s okay if you just write it on the blackboard. Irako has been living abroad for a long time. Please keep in mind that everything is very new for her here.” Rinne wrote her name on the blackboard horizontally in neat characters, but they were of uneven size, with the first two characters very big and the rest getting smaller and smaller. It was Rinne’s first day in a school, and probably also her first time being surrounded by so many other teenagers. Of course she’d be nervous. “M-m-my…,” she stuttered, too anxious to speak, maybe forgetting what she was about to say. At that point, Rinne seemed about to cry. She was wringing her hands, looking down at the floor. Seeing her like that stirred Ryuunosuke’s protective instincts. You can do it! He was sending encouraging vibes her way, and he wasn’t the only one. He could sense that all the other students in the classroom were also focused on Rinne, watching her with bated breaths. In their hearts, they were all wishing for her to find the courage. “M-my name is Rinne Irako. I have lived abroad for many years, so everything here is very unfamiliar to me. I hope I do not do anything to upset anyone. It is nice to meet you.” Nobody tried to make fun of her while she was introducing herself. Everyone listened in silence until she was finished, and then everyone stood up, unprompted by the teacher, to applaud Rinne. If someone peered into the classroom from the hallway, they’d be confused by the scene, but what mattered was that Rinne received the warmest of welcomes. After Rinne’s introduction to the class, the teacher made a few short announcements. Rinne took a desk at the back, near the windows. It was diagonally across from Ryuunosuke’s. Since her arrival was unplanned, the desk order had changed a little, but nobody minded. Other girls crowded around Rinne’s desk, asking her lots of questions. “I hope she’s going to be okay…and that she doesn’t blurt out anything she shouldn’t,” Ryuunosuke muttered. “Well, look at her! Already part of the group, from the looks of it.” “That’s good on one hand, but…,” the person next to him said reassuringly. “She’s not as good at pretending to be a sweet ordinary girl as me, is she?” “She’s grown up more sheltered than you, Abara… Wait… Abara…?” Ryuunosuke turned. The mythical vampire girl, Mari Abara, was standing right next to him. “Whaaat?!” Completely caught off guard, he stood from his chair and retreated until his back was pressed against the lockers. “A pretty girl comes to talk to you, and you shriek like you’ve seen a ghost?” “Wh-wh-wh-why are you here?!” “Why? I’m a student at this school. Where else should I be? Don’t tell me you’ve been worried about not seeing me again? Aw, Ryuunosuke Dazai. Silly you!” Her flirty tone reminded him of a manga dialogue bubble with heart symbols at the end of each sentence. She poked his side, as playful as always. “B-but… Last night…” “Ah yes, I was going to talk to you about it.” “Y-you were?” “Yes. I wanted to say I’m sorry about what happened.” She looked at him with a gentleness she didn’t usually display. “It’s okay, no need to be sorry. I told you, didn’t I? I didn’t mind that little scratch.” “If you say so… My orders are to keep an eye on the Dragon Princess. Nothing about you. Personally, I don’t want to hurt you. You don’t have to worry about me attacking you at school. I’m not going to start anything with her, either, while we’re here. You can trust me.” “Ah…” Ryuunosuke looked up sideways at the ceiling, feeling bad about his frightened reaction to her. He scratched the back of his head. “I’ve always trusted you, from the moment we met. I just…wasn’t expecting to see you, that’s all.” “That’s a relief to hear…” For a few moments, sweet silence fell between them. “On a different topic…would you like to go out for ramen with me at Saburou’s one of these days—?” But she didn’t get to finish. “You there.” They hadn’t noticed Rinne walking up to them. She was giving Mari a death stare. She grabbed one of Ryuunosuke’s arms, and Mari clutched his other one. He was sandwiched between the two girls. “Get away from Ryuunosuke, impudent wench.” Mari frowned angrily. “And why do you think you have the right to order me around? What I do with Ryuunosuke Dazai is none of your business, so shut it, lizard.” “You talk big for a frail little bat who lost to me and ran away squealing.” “Excuse me? Oh, don’t tell me you thought I was fighting you for real back then? I couldn’t use my full strength with Ryuunosuke Dazai there. Wasn’t that obvious? I guess your reptile brain is too tiny to understand that.” “I do not know what sort of relationship you think you have with Ryuunosuke…” “…Yeah, go on?” “…but he is destined to be my mate. He has wed me.” “What?! He MARRIED you?!” Mari quickly turned to look at Ryuunosuke. Her eyes were open wide in shock. He raised his hands placatingly. “Calm down, Abara. It’s not what she meant.” “R-right, I didn’t believe it for a moment that you’d marry this primitive animal. You belong to me after all,” Mari said, still seeming shaken. “He has wed me, not you.” “He probably just said whatever to get you off him!” “I have also heard you are a first-year student. I am a second-year student. You should treat me with respect, as I am your senior.” “Shut up, idiot! I’d rather die than be polite to you!” It looked like they were about to start throwing punches, but what worried Ryuunosuke more than that was the fact that other students around were getting curious why one of the girls was claiming to be married to him. He wanted to shout, “It’s not what it sounds like! It’s just soul linking! Not marriage!” But he couldn’t do that, of course.