I sat down in the hallway of the Dragon’s castle, hugged my chest, and cried. Hurt and sadness overwhelmed me.
When I opened my arms, a round, bruise-like mark appeared on my chest. It emitted a soft, warm light. Just like U’s body-sharing technology picks up the inflammatory response caused by physical injuries, I think it must also pick up changes in biometric information caused by emotional wounds and give them physical form.
I heard a creeeak. The door opened and the angel AS gestured for me to come in.
I wiped my tears and stood up. The light emanating from my chest faded. The angel AS disappeared into the Dragon’s room, as if inviting me to follow. I stepped up to the door and put both hands on it.
I hesitated.
“……”
Then I gathered my resolve and softly pushed.
Creeeeeak…
“…Oh!”
Although it was dark inside, I could see the room was big and stretched far back. The ceiling was high. There was a canopied bed and a large fireplace in the center of one wall. Picking my way between the fragments littering the floor, I looked up at the wall over the fireplace. It was covered in small, framed photographs.
What’s this?
There were insects, leaves, flowers, nuts, branches, streams, the wall of a house, a field, clouds… At first glance, the objects all looked ordinary. Nothing about them could help me identify their origin. But the picture in the very middle, in a tall, narrow frame, was different.
“…Who is she?”
It was a picture of a woman in a dress holding a huge bunch of roses. I couldn’t make out her expression. A spider’s web of cracks extended across the glass over her face.
“……”
How was this woman related to the Dragon? Why was the glass cracked? Had it been cracked to intentionally obscure her face? Or—
I looked around the room, then gasped.
There was the Dragon.
He was sitting on the far side of the messy room, facing the balcony with his back to me. He was very still, perhaps sleeping.
I held my breath and slowly walked toward him, taking care not to make a sound.
“You’re hurt…”
For the first time, I saw the bruises covering his large back up close. Their intricate shapes and colors held my eye. Somehow, to me, they were beautiful. What did they mean to the Dragon? I slowly reached out my hand, wanting to find an answer.
Suddenly, he stood and spun around.
“Ah!!” I gasped, shrinking back.
“Don’t touch me!!” he yelled nervously. His feelings were very clear.
“I’m sorry. Your bruises…”
“Did you come to laugh at my hideousness?!”
“No!”
I placed my hand over my heart and said, trying to be as empathetic as I could, “Do they hurt? I’m sure they must. You really shouldn’t be so violent—”
But the Dragon shook his head before I could finish speaking.
“You don’t understand anything.”
“Then tell me, so I can understand!”
“Leave!!” he howled, his body shaking like a ferocious beast. “UOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The whole room shook.
I couldn’t stay there any longer. I ran out the door and down the hall, turning corner after corner. When I came to the grand entrance hall, the mermaids called out mockingly:
“Go!”
“Leave!”
“Get out!”
I was overcome with humiliation and frustration. But there was nothing more I could do. I left the castle in silence.
I retraced my path, eventually coming to the group of skyscrapers in the abandoned unit. Pulling my hood over my face, I peeked around the corner of one of the buildings, surveying the scene. I saw no one. After another careful check, I scurried forward.
At the corner of another building, I scanned my surroundings several times, then hurried on. On the far side of the wide avenue, I could see a gate dividing a group of tall buildings from a park. Once I made it through that gate, I’d be safely on my way to U’s Main Stream.
I heard a voice.
“You there! Wait!”
I froze.
A troop of Justices approached. I was caught just in front of the gate, which I had thought was abandoned. There were a lot of them. They walked up from behind and surrounded me. I kept my back turned and my hood up, hunching my shoulders.
“What are you doing here?” one of them asked.
“Did you see anyone?”
“A hideous monster, perhaps?”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I waited for the right moment, then tried to flee. But one of them shot out their hand and violently pulled back my hood. Another hand reached out and grabbed my hair. The ribbon holding it back came undone.
“No!!”
My face was now in full view. All I could do was cover my mouth with my hands.
Someone was standing on the far side of the troops.
“You’re…Belle?” the figure asked.
It was Justin. He sounded slightly surprised.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
I glared silently at him.
“You won’t answer? Then—”
The bracelet on his right arm glinted, transforming into the winged lion’s head.
“Ah…?!”
My heart was pounding out of my chest.
“If you won’t tell us, we’ll have to see who you really are,” Justin said nonchalantly.
He was using the unveiling light to threaten me. I trembled in terror. If my identity was revealed…
“Uh… Uhhh… Uh…!” I stuttered.
At that moment, I glimpsed something hurtle between the buildings toward me.
The Dragon.
Justin glanced down in surprise. “Beast!!”
Suddenly, I was in the Dragon’s arms, soaring toward the buildings overhead.
“It’s the Beast!”
“Chase him!”
“After him!!”
The Justices followed in hot pursuit.
From my place against his chest, I looked up at the Dragon’s face. He was trying to save me? But why? Just a little while ago he’d yelled at me to leave!
Before I knew it, the troops had caught up and were hurling themselves against the Dragon. They kicked his back and punched him, but he did not resist. In the stadium, he had crushed Justices like these so easily, but now, he did nothing.
Taking advantage of his passive response, they amused themselves by punching and kicking him.
Eventually, one asked, “Why won’t he fight back?”
“Lost his nerve, has he?” another answered.
“He’s gone soft,” a third sneered.
“……!” I bit my lip in frustration.
Suddenly, I noticed a skyscraper directly in front of us.
“Oh!”
We were heading straight for it. The Justices were too absorbed in tormenting the Dragon to notice it. The Dragon would be driven into the building.
We sped toward the skyscraper.
“?!”
By the time the Justices realized what was happening, the building was right in front of us. They couldn’t swerve. Screaming, they barreled into the thick glass.
The Dragon twisted away in the nick of time, but because he was protecting me, his back hit the glass. He ricocheted off with a loud thud.
“GWAAAAAA!” he groaned in pain. Then he began descending, like he had no more energy left to fly. Like a marionette whose strings had been cut, he rocketed downward, scraping against the sides of the buildings. I was afraid he would smash into the ground.
“We’ll crash!” I couldn’t help screaming.
The Dragon clenched his teeth with effort. Twisting his arched body forward, he nimbly kicked off the building’s wall, narrowly avoiding the ground. Still gripping me, he hurtled unsteadily through the chasm between buildings.