Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This was supposed to be a normal day. Like every other day was for the last like 3,500 years. I was just here in my cave full of gold hidden away from the plain sight of most humans. To be honest, the gold no longer interested me. They’re shit compared to what I currently have right now.

Video games!

You can’t help but move on with the times. Gold was where it was at a few thousand years ago but now video games were my treasure. I was just planning on replaying the entirety of my favorite video game series about a group of ass-kicking badasses while leaning my dragon body back against the cave walls when suddenly, something crashed through the roof of my cave so hard that it slammed straight to the fucking ground beside me and left a sizeable crater. The sound was like a damn explosion, surprising me so much that my panicking tail almost broke my console and TV. Now that would’ve been a real shitty tragedy.

Of course, seeing as this was my house they were invading, I was about to give this bitch of an intruder a piece of my mind, and maybe kick a piece of their sorry ass too.

“Now, let’s see what kind of bitch is dumb enough to mess with a dragon like me.”

My long neck stretched towards the crater and I was surprised at what I saw.

“An angel?”

It was an angel with white hair. She had cobalt-blue highlights in some places between the gaps of her bangs. Admittedly, I found them to be quite cool. She was dressed in some kind of a weird school uniform-like outfit but she was no doubt a bonafide angel. She had floaty white wings on her back and a halo floating near her head. Her halo was unusual because it was shaped like a four-sided star. I thought all halos were circular. I also thought they were made of light. This star halo looked like it was made of metal or something. Either way, this angel didn’t look like an intruder. I thought she deliberately crashed through my roof to invade me but she was hurt. She was having a hard time breathing and was bleeding from her injuries.

“Ah, geez. Attacking shitty invaders is easy but this? What am I supposed to fucking do with this?”

I sighed out of frustration. I didn’t want to hurt this angel if she meant me no harm, especially in the condition she was currently in. I did what anyone would do in this situation. I searched my pile of gold for any healing potions. What a smart dragon I was because I quickly found some.

I splashed a few on the injured angel. As she absorbed the healing potion, she started to faintly glow green and her injuries began closing up slowly. Eventually, her bleeding stopped and she started breathing normally.

“Well, that should do the trick. I think,” I said to myself, trying to reassure my mind that I didn’t mess up something and further injure this angel.

“I should let her sleep. Ask questions once she wakes up. For now, let’s see if there’s also a bed in this pile of gold.”

A week had passed since this angel crashed into my cave. This cave was pretty deep underground too. Every day of the past week, I kept looking up at the impressive hole she ended up making. It was a very long tunnel that led directly up to the surface. I could see the faint light of the sun at the far top. More importantly, I was getting worried for this angel. She was breathing fine and any signs of her wounds had faded away but she’d slept through an entire fucking week. I didn’t really know if this was normal for an angel, let alone a previously injured angel, but it was getting me goddamn concerned.

I heard a groan from the bed that she was lying on.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked quite loudly.

She was struggling to fully wake up. As she rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes, she slowly raised herself up. She was now sitting on the bed. Her eyes widened at the sight of me. At first, I was confused as to why she looked scared, then I remembered that I was a fucking seven-meter tall purple magic dragon who can breathe fire looking down at her.

“Wait wait wait! It’s okay! I’m not going to hurt you.”

She looked at her surroundings. Then, she looked at the bed she was on, and the covers she was in.

“Did you put me in this bed?”

“Yeah, you looked like you needed it. You were in a pretty shitty condition.”

She looked shocked when she heard me curse but she didn't comment on it. She scratched her head. “What happened to me?”

“I don’t really have an idea. All I know is that you crashed from somewhere. Apparently, you were crashing with enough speed to dig deep into the earth and land in my underground cave.”

“What?” she asked, confused.

I didn’t really know how to explain it properly, so I opted for the simple explanation.

“Basically, you caused that shit.” I raised a finger towards the ceiling. When she lifted her head, she saw the hole on the roof—the hole that she made. She stood out of bed, walked directly under the hole, and looked directly up.

Her eyes widened. “Oh my.”

“‘Oh my’ indeed. Can you remember anything before that?”

She walked back to the bed and sat down on it.

“Let’s see. My name is Amane Kanata.”

“Okay, that’s good. You remember your name. I hear that's a good sign when people wake up after being injured.”

“I’m an angel, as you may already know.”

“Yes, the halo and the wings and all.”

Kanata looked like she had a revelation. Her eyebrows raised and she gasped. “Yes, I remember! I’m a student from the Celestial Academy.”

“The fucking what now?”

“It’s like a school for angels. I was a student council member in the Celestial Academy, and I was just about to fall to my designated place!”

“Fall?”

“Yes. Angel students are supposed to fall safely to our designated places where we will continue our learning. I chose to learn healing abilities in order to complete my education and become a full-fledged angel but somehow I ended up here instead. Not only that but violently crashing here instead of landing safely.”

“Hey, that’s bad, isn’t it? If you’re here and not in your designated place, then what happens?”

“If I’m not in my designated place in two weeks, I’ll be called back up to Celestial Academy to receive a failing grade. I’ll probably get held back!” As Kanata said those final sentences, her tone became more and more panicked and desperate. “Oh no! What should I do!?”

“Hey, calm down. You’re going to be fine.”

I don’t know that. Why am I talking like I know? I’m basically lying to her.

Kanata suddenly looked shocked. “Hey, Miss Dragon. How long have I been asleep?”

My eyes widened to her question. I knew the unfortunate truth. I fought against the hesitation and replied. “You’ve been asleep for a week.”

As Kanata heard my answer, her hands fell down to the bed, as if she just lost all of her strength. She lowered her head as she looked at the blanket covering her legs. She had given up.

I didn’t really know who Kanata was but that wasn’t the point. She was obviously in despair, and I could feel her sadness. It hurt. It was as if everything I worked for was for nothing. It felt like shit. I didn’t want to just stand by and let it happen.

I summoned all the power I could muster and activated my magic. My whole body shined bright. Kanata was surprised by the sudden brightness. My dragon body slowly became smaller and smaller. I was changing form. Finally, the light from my body disappeared, and I revealed to Kanata my human form. I looked like any other human. Well, except for the horns coming out of both sides of my head and the tail coming out of my back from my skirt.

As soon as my transformation was over, I walked fast to Kanata. Seeing me fast approaching, she flinched as I took hold of her hands.

“Don’t worry, Kanata. I am here.”

Kanata looked at me curiously. “What do you mean?”

“I am here for you. Who cares if you only have a damn week left to get to your designated place? I will help you get there.”

Kanata’s eyes started to water. Her tears flowed down her cheeks. “Really?”

I held her hand slightly more tightly. “Really.”

Kanata pulled her hands away from mine. She spread her arms around me and hugged me, pulling me closer to her. I was a bit surprised as she was a lot stronger than I thought she would be. She pulled me into her embrace with a great force.

“Thank you. Thank you very much.”

I allowed this moment of embrace to last longer. I put a hand up to Kanata’s head and gently caressed her hair. It took about a whole two minutes before she let go of me.

Kanata rubbed the tears off of her eyes with her palms. “So, what do we do first?”

“We’ll take the only shot we currently have at getting you to where you need to be.”

“And what would that be?”

“A transportation altar.”

Kanata tilted her head. “A transportation altar? What’s that?”

“It is what it is. A magical altar that can transport people if we activate it. Using magic, obviously. It being a magical altar and all.”

“Ooh, that definitely sounds like what we need!”

I snapped my fingers. “Yes, exactly. Well, we could also try finding a witch. But finding a witch is even less likely to happen than finding a very rare magical object. Now I know that the altar exists and is not just a myth, unlike some other shitty magical artifacts that ended up being just rumors but the problem is that I don’t know for sure where one would be.”

“So does that mean that you do have a place in mind but you just aren’t 100% sure that there actually is one there?”

“Right on the money. I heard that a princess of a nearby kingdom just suddenly requested a transportation altar. I know that she made the request but I don’t know if she received it yet. However, an issue we have is the fact that I have a different sense of time. Or ‘had,’ I guess. I changed it to become human-like from the day I started nursing you just because I wanted to be safe dealing with you but time feels very different for me normally.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I could’ve received this information days, months, or even years ago without me realizing how much time had passed.”

“Ah, well that isn’t good, is it?”

“Nope but we have to try anyway.”

“That’s okay with me! What’s the name of the kingdom?”

“I don’t know if it’s the official name of the kingdom but I’ve heard of it being called as the Candy Kingdom.”

“Wow, that sounds very sweet, literally. Is the kingdom made of candy?”

“Unsure on that. I don’t know if the kingdom is made of literal candy or if its people are. Maybe they’re only colloquially called Candy Kingdom. Regardless, we should travel there and see if they still have the altar.”

“Okay!” Kanata stood up from the bed. She stretched her arms upward, relieving her fatigued body.

“Are you sure you can walk? You did just wake up. Maybe you could rest for today and we can start tomorrow.”

“No!” she said sternly. “You’re doing your best for me even though we just met, so I can’t slack off.”

“If you say so.” My remaining concern for her was obvious from my voice.

“Oh wait! I can’t believe this!” she suddenly shouted out.

“What? What is it?” I said, slightly nervous.

“I don’t even know your name yet. This is terrible. I need to know the name of my savior. Please tell me your name.”

“Oh, my name. Funny thing, I don’t really have one.”

“What?” Kanata was surprised.

“Yeah, it wasn’t a common thing for dragons. We mostly have a good memory so we don’t really need labels and names and such.”

“But that feels lonely, doesn’t it? It’s nice to have a name. When people mention your name, you know that whatever they are saying is directed to you. It’s like one of the most basic and simplest connections in the history of any speaking living being with free will. We must give you a name.” Kanata emphasized the last thing she said. She looked at me with a smile on her face as she put her hands on her hip.

“Well, it’s not like I’m opposed, and besides, a lot of dragons recently decided to take on names just because they want to have one. But I have no ideas for a name.”

Kanata raised a finger to her temple and had one eyebrow raised as she tried thinking of something. Her face lit up and she had a big smile.

“I have an idea for a name!” she proudly declared.

“I’m all ears.”

“Remember earlier when you said ‘I am here?’”

As I remembered that I did in fact say a line as fucking cheesy as that, I slightly blushed. “Yes? Why does it matter?”

“Well, if you didn’t notice from my name, I’m Japanese. In Japanese, ‘I am here’ translates to ‘watashi wa koko.’ Doing a bit of wordplay, ‘watashi wa koko’ can mean ‘I am Koko,’ so how about ‘Koko’ for your name?”

My eyes widened as I heard the word “Koko.” I didn’t know why but it resonated with me. I liked that name. Koko.

“I like it, Kanata. But one little thing.”

“Hmm? What is it? Are you not satisfied with it? I think it’s pretty clever myself,” she said with a smug grin.

“I love the name. I just want to spell it with two Cs.”

“Two Cs? Why?”

“I don’t really know. Just felt right to me.”

“Well, Coco with Cs is a more usual name than Koko with Ks, so I’m okay with it. Besides, I was only making a suggestion. It’s your name to do with as you see fit. There’s no need to get permission from me.” Kanata gave me a happy smile and a thumbs up.

I giggled. “Yes, I really like this name you suggested. Coco. I’ll try to start using it more so that my dragon brain won’t stupidly forget it.”

“Well then, now that you have your new cute name, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Chapter Text

After taking some gold for the road, Kanata used her wings to fly through the long tunnel she created when she crashed. She carried along my now wingless self with her as she flew out. She was a lot stronger than she looked. As soon as we got out of my cave, we looked for the nearest path and went in the direction of the Candy Kingdom. Soon enough, it became evening.

“It’s getting dark,” Kanata said.

“Yeah, it really is. Is there somewhere we can stay in?”

“Oh, look over there!” Kanata pointed to a nearby village up ahead of our path. “Let’s stay at an inn in that village.”

“I don’t know, Kanata. I’m a dragon, and my horns and tail are visible. Won’t the whole village panic, or worse yet, attack us?”

“What? No, they won’t. It’s been hundreds of years since the last dragon attack, and people are a lot more open-minded about different species now.”

“I’m still not sure.”

“Come on, Coco!”

Because I hadn’t been outside of my cave for hundreds of years, I still thought that people were unequivocally scared of dragons. For the entire ten minutes it took for us to reach the village, Kanata had to explain to me over and over again that while dragon sightings were indeed still rare nowadays, people no longer treated our species like harbingers of doom. We eventually reached a village inn. I stopped right outside the door.

“Are you sure about this? They won’t immediately attack us and shit?”

“Yes, Coco. I’m sure. You’ll see.”

Kanata entered first. I followed behind her, still feeling nervous. The people in the lobby looked surprised when they saw me and my horns and tail but they didn’t seem to be fearful.

“You go sit quietly on that couch while I take care of front desk business,” Kanata said.

I nodded. Then, I meekly walked toward one of the couches near the entrance. I couldn't believe how timid I was acting. Other people were sitting nearby, looking curious about me. However, they quickly eased up when I didn’t do anything suspicious while I sat down. I looked at Kanata trying to take care of business on the front desk. She offered to do so but it looked like she was shy and awkward as she talked to the innkeeper. She looked cute.

It didn’t long for Kanata to finish up. After paying the innkeeper, she led me to our room upstairs. It was a simple room with two beds and a single window with a great view of the moon. The room was a bit smaller than I was used to but it was cozy. Kanata jumped onto one of the beds.

“Ah, my feet are killing me. This bed is my next savior after you, Coco.”

I laughed. “What are you saying?”

“I don’t know. I’m too tired to think about what I’m saying.”

“Well, we did walk the whole way, so I understand how tired you must be.”

Kanata looked at me. “How about you, Coco? How come you don’t look tired?”

I gave her a proud smug smile. “I’m a dragon, Kanata. Practically infinite stamina is one of the perks of the species. Along with stronger muscles.”

“That’s basically cheating. Gimme some of those cheats, Coco.”

“I would if I could.”

The both of us laugh. I sat down on the other bed.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?”

Kanata looked curious. “Of course. What do you want to know?”

“Where’s your designated place? I was curious since it is our destination and I don’t even know it.”

“Oh right! My bad for not mentioning it sooner. My designated place is Japan.”

“Japan? I thought Japan was a fictional country. I’ve only ever heard of it in my favorite video game series about a group of ass-kickin' badasses.”

Kanata raised herself and sat down on the side of the bed. She looked a bit more serious now.

“You didn’t know Japan was real? That’s where Japanese comes from. It’s how I came up with your name. My name is Japanese too.”

“Really? That’s interesting. But I really didn’t know anything about Japan outside of those video games I was playing. Dragons have the unconscious ability to understand any language because of our inherent ancient magic so maybe the games I was playing were in Japanese and I just never realized.”

“That’s odd. How can that be?”

“Well, I can think of one possibility.”

“Oh? What is it? Please tell me 'cause I’m getting nervous about this. Japan is pretty commonly known, at least that’s what I was told.”

“It’s possible that whatever caused you to steer away from your designated place also somehow caused you to enter another universe.”

“What?” Kanata was confused. I didn’t blame her for being confused. She probably wasn’t taught this since she didn’t really have any use for it as an angel.

“In simple words, Japan is currently in another universe from where we are right now.”

“What!?” Kanata was anxious now. She was practically lost on a cosmic scale so it was a reasonable reaction. “How is it even possible that you have a video game set in Japan if Japan doesn’t exist in this universe?”

“Well, my cave is full of stuff that I picked up from anywhere and everywhere. Rifts between universes could’ve opened somewhere and these video games could’ve gone through it. I heard witches commonly go between worlds and take whatever they get there back home. Maybe some witches dropped these games.”

“Is that so?” Kanata said. She sounded defeated. “Isn’t this bad, then?”

She was getting really worried so I tried to ease up her worries a bit. “Don’t worry! Whether you’re in another universe or not, the transportation altar can send you anywhere as long as you can think of it. It might require a bit more magic though to account for interdimensional travel, but since I’m a dragon with a lot of magic inside me, there’s no way we won’t have enough.”

Kanata sighed a breath of relief. She looked relaxed now.

“Geez, that really scared me.”

“That’s understandable but don’t worry. we’ll find a way.”

Kanata smiled at me. “Okay. I trust you, Coco.”

I blushed as she said that. Kanata put a hand up to her mouth as she yawned.

“Well, someone is sleepy.”

“Yep. I say we should go to sleep now. Might even help me get rid of this nervousness.”

I smile at her. “Alright, good night.”

“Good night.”

Kanata raised her legs to her bed and covered herself with her blanket. I wasn’t sleepy yet so I just laid my back down on the bed, blankly staring up at the ceiling. I planned on just letting my mind race through various thoughts until sunrise or whenever Kanata woke up. I must’ve been more tired than I first thought because without realizing it, I eventually fell asleep as well.

A day had passed since Kanata and I decided to head for the Candy Kingdom. There were only six days left before the Celestial Academy failed Kanata for not being in her designated place. We already left the village and were walking on the road with our spirits high. Before leaving the village, I even got to have casual conversations with some of the villagers as I waited for Kanata to wake up. She was right. Everyone was open-minded about different species nowadays. What a time to be alive.

We were just walking on the path in the middle of grass fields. We saw a few trees and tree stumps off the path as we walked on. The wind felt nice and the sun’s heat wasn’t too intense. It was a normal day. I was hoping that like yesterday, nothing would bother us on our journey.

As we were walking, Kanata tugged at my sleeve.

“Coco…”

“I know. Keep looking ahead as we walk.”

Kanata nodded slightly and looked forward. I knew what her concern was. Someone was following us. I could feel their presence. And their evil aura. Whoever was following us was emitting an aura of darkness. That alone wasn’t enough to raise my suspicions. It was the fact that I could clearly feel their stare. They were staring at Kanata. I would be fine if they were targeting me but Kanata was now my friend. Anyone that tried to harm this innocent angel was going to feel my fucking wrath.

Thinking about it now, Kanata arrived at my place because of mysterious circumstances. She had a destination she was going to, and not only did she not end up in that destination but she also ended up in a separate universe from the place she was going to.

And now someone was following us.

Could her accident be a deliberate plot? Is the bitch following us right now the fucking cause of all this?

With these thoughts in mind, I grew angrier and angrier. But angry or not, I couldn’t let someone emitting such a dark aura keep following us.

“Stop,” I said.

Kanata and I stopped walking. The asshole following us stopped walking too. A few seconds passed with the three of us just standing.

Then, I made my move.

I quickly turned around, stomped one foot hard into the ground, and leaped with great force towards this creep who was wearing a brown cloak. As I fast approached them with a ready fist, they quickly made a circular motion with both of their hands, leaving behind trails of darkness. As they completed the circle, I arrived in front of them and tried to punch them but they were shielded by the circle they just made. As dark sparks went everywhere, I went for an even harder punch that broke through their shitty dark shield, sending them flying a few feet back.

With a motion from both of their hands, the creep conjured a ball of darkness which released a magic beam that they shot toward me. I jumped to the side to avoid it. As I landed on my feet, I glanced at Kanata, who was safely hiding behind a nearby tree.

I once again leaped towards this piece of shit. I was faster this time as I was able to kick them with my knee and send them flying into the air. I jumped with great force and met them in the air. I clasped my hands together and raised them over my head. They put their arms in a cross which activated another magic shield as I bashed down my hands towards them. It didn’t break through the shield but I hit them with so much force that I was able to send them flying back where they came from.

As I landed on the ground, I quickly ran towards Kanata with my hands reaching out to her. She saw me and quickly grabbed my hand in response.

“Hang on tight!”

Kanata’s grip on my hand tightened, and I could hear her wings flapping rapidly. I focused my magic on my back, and there appeared in a flash among magical sparks were my dragon wings coming out of my human back. I lost a bit of magic that we needed to use for the transportation altar but I’d make sure that we wouldn’t end up short on magic when the time came.

With a single flap of my wings, we shot right up towards the damn sky in a straight line. I used my free hand to position Kanata in front of me. I hugged her tight, and she hugged me back. Then, with the second flap of my wings, we went straight towards where I was looking—towards the direction of the Candy Kingdom. I left that creep bitch beaten, hoping that they would understand the threat I possessed toward them if they continued to follow Kanata. Every flap of my wings sent us a lot of feet toward our destination and away from the place where I battled. I could feel my chest getting wet. Kanata was crying. Fucking hell, the poor angel was probably scared for her life. I really wanted to gently rub her head but I needed to carry her safely with both of my arms.

Eventually, even a strong and mighty dragon like myself got tired. I was using my wings in my human form which I was not used to doing at all. I slowed down my flight and slowly and carefully glided towards the ground. When our feet finally touched the ground, I immediately held Kanata’s shoulders.

“Kanata, are you okay!?”

Kanata wiped tears from her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just a bit scared but I wasn’t hurt or anything.”

I sighed out of relief. I patted her head.

“It’s okay. I told you, right? I’m here. No one’s going to hurt you. Not on my watch.”

“Yeah, okay.” Kanata continued rubbing tears from her eyes. She was really scared. I didn’t really know how to make her stop crying so I was in a bit of a panic.

The sound of a harp and a beautiful humming voice entered my ears. Kanata and I looked to the side, towards the source of the music. There, sitting on luggage, was a cute fluffy-looking sheep girl masterfully playing the harp and singing with her eyes closed. She had visible sheep horns on her head. Her light blonde hair gracefully flowed with the wind, cute sheep ears coming out from the sides. Her beautiful tune enamored both Kanata and me so much that Kanata immediately stopped crying and my worries about Kanata being sad quickly faded away.

As the sheep girl finished her singing, she opened her eyes in surprise as Kanata and I clapped at her exquisite performance.

“That was amazing,” Kanata told her.

“It really, really was.”

The sheep girl looked surprised but she gave us a smile and a wave.

“Thank you very much.”

Kanata and I approached her.

“Your performance was so good,” Kanata excitedly told her. “I was sad and crying but hearing your harp and voice put an end to all of that.”

The sheep girl blushed and shook her head.

“Surely it was not that good. I’m just singing for the sake of singing. I love singing. That’s all it is.”

“Your love is rewarding you then,” I told her, “because that was truly a good performance. I hope we weren’t being rude by just suddenly listening to it.”

“Oh no, don’t worry about it. What kind of traveling bard would I be if I’m not willing to share my performance with those willing to listen?” The sheep girl gave Kanata and me a very soft smile.

“Speaking of sharing, can you share your name with us?” Kanata asked.

“My name is Tsunomaki Watame. You can just call me Watame.”

“Nice to meet you, Watame. I’m Amane Kanata”—Kanata pointed towards me—“and this is Coco. She doesn’t have a last name, at least not yet.”

“Really? That’s unusual, isn’t it?”

“I actually only got the name Coco yesterday. Kanata suggested it to me.”

“That’s sweet. Well, it’s nice to meet you two as well. You seem like good friends.”

“Yes, yes we are!” Kanata exclaimed. “And if you don’t mind, would you be friends with us too?”

Watame was surprised but then became excited.

“Of course! I don’t see anything wrong with that.” Watame gave us an even bigger smile than the one she had before. However, she noticed Kanata suddenly looking sad and became concerned. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

“It’s just that we need to go somewhere. We’ve only just become friends but it looks like we’ll be going our separate ways immediately.”

“Where do you need to go?”

“The Candy Kingdom,” I told her. “We have some business there that we need to take care of.”

“I see.” Watame cupped Kanata’s cheeks and smiled. “Don’t worry, I can accompany you there.”

Kanata’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yes. I am a traveling bard, after all. I go where I desire and perform my songs there. You seem like you want to hear more of my songs. Some people in the past who liked my songs followed me for a while before we parted ways. Nothing wrong with me following my audience for a while this time around.”

Kanata became happy, hopping up and down in excitement and clapping her hands.

“You hear that, Coco!? She’ll be able to travel with us. We’ll become closer friends!”

“Yes, yes. I was here, Kanata. I heard it.” Watame and I giggled at Kanata’s excitement. I gestured at Watame. When she looked at me, I pointed to her luggage. “Need help with all that shit?”

“Oh, no need. I can drag it myself.”

“Don’t be shy. I am a strong dragon, after all. It won’t bother me one bit. And also, I insist. Let me.”

“Well, if you really insist, then thank you for your help.”

I walk over to her luggage and grab it by the handle. “Well, are you two ready to go?”

Watame and Kanata raised their thumbs. With that, I led the way towards the Candy Kingdom. The two of them ran up to my side before continuing to walk normally. From there, it was just as normal of a day as yesterday was, except now we had one more companion with us. We talked about mundane things, commented on everything we saw on our walk, and even had a few laughs. As our journey continued, I had a certain thought.

It felt unusual. I was a dragon who mostly stayed in her cave for hundreds of years, although I was still good and confident in socializing. Kanata was an angel who tried to act cool to hide her shyness but was genuinely quirky and friendly. Watame was a traveling sheep bard who had a beautiful gentle voice, was an expert in playing her harp, and overall exuded a feeling of fluffiness in every action she took. The three of us were nothing alike and yet, us being friends felt right.

As if it was meant to be.

I was probably just overthinking it. The reality was that I made two friends in two days and I was most likely just not used to it. I put the thought aside for now and continued focusing on the journey ahead. I will get Kanata home to where she needed to go. Maybe once Kanata got to Japan, Watame and I could come along. Or if only Kanata ended up going, I could accompany Watame in her travels.

Whatever the future may hold, I’ll make damn sure to keep my promise to Kanata. Keep her safe and get her to Japan.

Chapter Text

Two days had passed since Kanata and I met Watame who decided to accompany us as we headed for the Candy Kingdom. Four days left before Heaven Academy failed Kanata. We were able to explain to Watame everything that happened before we met her. She was quite concerned about the creep who was following us before but she was mostly glad that we got away from that shitty situation safely. We didn’t encounter any other villages on the way so we had to sleep in a single tent that Watame had in her luggage. It was pretty cozy even though it was such a small space with the three of us inside. Despite the days passing by, the three of us did not feel too much urgency. In fact, we were already here.

We were in front of the gateway of the Candy Kingdom’s walls. I thought it would be a 5-day trip from my cave to the Candy Kingdom but my wings carried us farther than I realized. Watame was surprised when I was confused as all hell because she knew that it would only take two days to get from the area where we met her to the Candy Kingdom. Watame and Kanata laughed at my confusion, much to my chagrin, but I was glad they were having fun. As the three of us passed under the gateway, we were enamored with the sight of the kingdom.

The color pink was fucking everywhere. And it seemed like the color was damn beloved too. I learned that there was no decree from the kingdom that pink needed to be used for all buildings, the people—who were definitively not made of candy and were just regular ass humans—just collectively agreed that pink was the way to go. Also, the air gave off a hint of sweetness like—you guessed it—candy. You’d think it’d be overbearing but it was light enough of a smell that it was perfect. Kanata and Watame couldn’t stop themselves from sniffing the air constantly. The occasional citizen would look at them and smile endearingly. They weren’t making fun of Kanata and Watame. Instead, they were proud that the smell of the air was bringing much happiness to these two foreigners. From the entrance up until we got to an inn, I just had the impression that this was a nice kingdom filled to the brim with kindness and joy.

When we got to our room in the inn, I put down Watame’s luggage next to one of the beds. Watame sat on that bed while Kanata and I sat on the other bed. We decided to only have two beds to lower the cost, and Kanata and I would be sleeping together.

“Okay, so we got here easy,” I said. “Some minor bumps along the road, and one major bump, but we’re here and we’re safe.”

Kanata and Watame nodded.

“So, what are you two going to do now?” Watame asked.

“We need to find the transportation altar but there is just one major obstacle with that.”

Kanata looked at me quizzically. “Huh? What’s that?”

“Like I said before, a princess of the royal family requested the transportation altar. Even assuming that a living princess right now is the one who requested the altar, we still need to actually ask them about the location of the altar. I doubt the royal family takes spontaneous appointments from strangers.”

Kanata pointed to herself. “Maybe we can use my status as an angel. I mean, I am a literal angel asking for help.”

Watame lightly clapped her hands. “Ooh, that sounds like a great idea.”

I held a hand to my chin and thought about Kanata’s suggestion. “You do have the halo and the wings but maybe even that wouldn’t be enough to convince them that you’re an actual angel. We could definitely try it but we would still need a backup plan if it fails. Or better yet, a plan that we’re absolutely sure will succeed.”

The three of us tried to come up with more plans and kept bouncing ideas off of each other until midnight. In the end, we all agreed that the ideas we came up with all kinda dumb compared to Kanata’s suggestion, and even that wasn’t as great of a suggestion as we wished it was. If only we could come up with a way to get an appointment with one of the members of the royal family, we wouldn’t even need to prove that Kanata’s an angel. We were stuck.

As soon as we noticed that it was slightly past midnight, we agreed to go to sleep and come up with more plans tomorrow. I thought that maybe we could do some sightseeing first to inspire us. Kanata and Watame soon fell asleep. I found myself wide awake again like that time in the village, except this time I really couldn’t fall asleep.

I looked out the window of our room and looked at the bright crescent moon in the sky.

I sighed to myself. “Maybe I should get some fresh air.”

I sneaked out of the room without waking Kanata and Watame up. As I stepped outside, I immediately noticed that the air now smelled like a different kind of sweets. I didn’t really understand how that was possible but it smelled just as nice as the earlier smell in the morning. I took a deep breath.

The street was bustling with life. The windows of various shops such as cafés, toy stores, stores of knick-knacks, and more were lit up bright with gentle lights of varying colors. It really made the night scene so beautiful that I was kinda regretting not waking the two up now. They would’ve loved to see this.

Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw a figure run by in an alley as I was about to walk past it. My anger returned, and I started balling up my fist. I fucking recognized the silhouette but I wanted to be sure before I took any action. I ran inside the alleyway and ran after the shadows of the person. Eventually, the person ran up to a dead end. The rays of the moonlight revealed who this person was. It was the damn bitch from earlier.

I yelled at them, “So you fucking came back for more, huh!?” I leaped towards them at great speed.

“Wait wait wait wait! WAIT!” a female voice said. As I approached her, she quickly covered herself with her arms, putting up a dark magic shield. I stopped short of just hitting her with my fist. I looked at her angrily, and I knew she could goddamn feel it.

She dispersed her dark magic shield. She slowly put her hands on the hood of her cloak and dragged it back, revealing her face to me. I was surprised. She had purple hair, and her ears had piercings. She actually looked very cool yet cute at the same time but you can’t judge a book by its cover.

“What do you want?” I asked her, my fist still ready to punch her at any moment.

“Um, I’m here to apologize.” Her voice was shaking, obviously trying to be confident. Was this really the same person who was following us?

I let down my guard and lowered my fist. “Apologize about attacking us?”

“What? No? I never attacked you. You attacked first.”

“No, you—” I stopped myself from talking and thought back to the battle. I didn’t really want to believe it but she was fucking right. I was the bitch who attacked first. And even during the battle, the only time she ever “attacked” was with a single beam, and thinking back at it now, once I jumped to the side to avoid it, she could’ve angled her hands to make the beam follow my path but she didn’t. I was about to punch the shit out of her back then. Maybe she attacked back out of panic? Every other thing she did besides that beam was a magic shield. If she really wanted to attack us, she could’ve gone to the offensive more. I shook my head. “But you were following us!”

“Like I said, I was following you to apologize.”

“Why didn’t you run up to us?”

“I’m sorry that I’m not so confident with talking to strangers, especially to a stranger whom I accidentally wronged.”

“Accidentally wronged? Who did you accidentally wrong?” I asked but it was pretty obvious who she was referring to. Only one out of our three-person party had mysterious circumstances.

“That angel. I accidentally did something wrong to that angel.”

A day had passed again, and now we only had three days left to get Kanata to her designated place of Japan. The sun had just come up, and daylight had entered our room from the window. A particularly mischievous ray of sunlight hit Kanata’s closed eyes. The bright ray was enough to gently disrupt her sleep. Now half-awake, Kanata sleepily raised from the bed. As she was about to fully wake up, she finally noticed an unexpected new addition in the room. On the floor, on top of a mattress, lay a person she didn’t know, sleeping peacefully. She recognized the cloak that the person was wearing, and her fear was slowly creeping back.

“Shh…”

Kanata turned her head, and she saw me sitting on the small chair with a finger in front of my mouth, gesturing for her to stay quiet. Kanata looked at me, her expression making it clear that she was questioning what was currently happening.

I nodded to Kanata, trying my best to reassure her with a smile.

It worked as Kanata deeply sighed in relief, at least I assumed so, and promptly nodded back.

Watame soon woke up as well. When she saw the new person, she was surprised and confused but she wasn’t really scared. That’s because we never described the mysterious person to Watame, so she didn’t recognize her.

Eventually, the sleeping person woke up. She was surprised to see all three of us awake and staring at her. She immediately sat properly and fixed her hair as well as she could, all with a hint of genuine coolness in her motion.

“Um, hello.” She waved at us.

“Can someone please explain to me what is going on?” Kanata asked.

I stood up from the chair and addressed this situation. “Okay. So let’s talk about this then.” I gestured towards the girl. “This girl’s name is Tokoyami Towa.”

“Hello everyone,” Towa said, waving again with both of her hands this time. “I’m Tokoyami Towa. I’m a devil, and I came here to apologize.”

“Apologize for what?” Watame asked.

Towa stood up on her feet, faced Kanata, and immediately and politely bowed. I knew this was beside the point and maybe even rude but for some reason, I thought that the perfect 90° angle of her bow was a beautiful sight to behold.

“I’m so sorry!”

Kanata was bewildered. She started flailing her arms around and she obviously did not know what was happening or what to do about it.

“Geez, um, sorry about what, Tokoyami-san?”

“I’m the reason we’re both in this mess.”

Kanata looked at Towa all confused. “This mess?”

“You were about to fall to your designated place, right?”

Kanata was surprised at first, then nodded her head. “Yes, that’s correct.”

“I was going to go to Japan as well. We devils have a similar process to yours when going to Earth. But I must’ve made a mistake in the magic I was supposed to cast because it ended up shooting me toward the sky once I got to Earth. That’s when I accidentally hit you as you were falling down yourself.”

Kanata was very surprised at this revelation. I scratched my head too when I first heard the truth last night—that this was all a very unfortunate accident.

“Wait!” Kanata yelled out, raising a palm towards Towa. “You were the one following us, right?”

Towa nodded. “Yes, I was following you.”

“Weren’t you planning to attack us?”

I immediately raised a hand, getting all of their attention. “I believe that is my fault.”

Kanata, Watame, and Towa looked towards me. Kanata in particular looked like she didn’t understand.

“What do you mean by that?” Watame asked.

I was filled with hesitation. This shitty misunderstanding was all my fucking fault, and I got two people hurt because of it. Nevertheless, I bit my lip and told them the truth. “I assumed things. The ‘evil’ aura I felt was simply the aura of beings who have an affinity for darkness and dark magic. I was happy about the villagers being open-minded about dragons but I myself was a bit too close-minded about dark beings and made a wrongful assumption.”

It was my turn. I faced both Kanata and Towa and bowed to them. “I’m very sorry for this. Because of my misunderstanding, I caused Kanata much distress, and I hurt Towa who was innocent of any malicious intent.”

Kanata and Towa looked very surprised. I just stayed there bowing towards them until they responded. The two looked at each other, then nodded. They stood up and Kanata tapped me on the shoulder. I raised my head and looked at them. I saw them both smiling at me.

“You were genuinely, and quite desperately might I add, trying to protect her. I think that’s very kind of you,” Towa said.

“And it was an honest mistake. You would never hurt an innocent person. I both know and am proof of that,” Kanata told me.

The both of them said, “We forgive you.”

My eyes were watering, and it took my all not to cry like a wimp in front of them.

“And before I forget”—Kanata turned her head to Towa—“I forgive you too. What happened was an accident. You practically didn’t do it at all. We were both just unfortunate.” Kanata offered a hand to Towa. “So let’s both get through this together, Towa.”

Towa looked like she went through the exact same emotions I just went through, except she actually let one or two tears flow down her cheeks. She took Kanata’s hand and they shook hands, solidifying another new friendship.

Watame clapped for us. “I don’t really understand all the details but it looks like you guys managed to reach a happy ending. Congratulations!” She clapped harder. She looked so genuinely happy doing it too. I just stood there hiding my flushed face. And based on the fact that Kanata and Towa were fidgeting, they were the same as me.

A few minutes had passed with us just having some small talk. Eventually, we decided to talk about our courses of action from now on. We sat near each other. Kanata and Watame sat on one of the beds, Towa sat on the other, and they were all facing me who was sitting on the small chair facing towards them.

“Okay, what should we do to get out of this mess?” Towa asked.

“Well, I had a suggestion but it’s not much of a solid plan,” Kanata told her.

“We thought the kingdom would likely help if a literal angel asked them for help. But we have no way of proving that Kanata is really an angel. They may just think that the wings and halo are fake,” I explained.

The room became quiet as we all tried to think of a next step. The silence in the room eventually became awkward, and it became damn apparent that none of us had a clue what to do next.

We heard a single loud clap, and we all looked at Watame.

“Why don’t we spend all day today sightseeing?” Watame suggested.

“Um, Watame? We only have three days left before Kanata fails. We’re kinda in an emergency here,” I gently explained to her.

“Wa. Ha. Ha.” Watame laughed weirdly, and in a smug way, which confused me. “That’s exactly why we should go sightseeing.”

“What does that even mean?”

“We’re not going to get any ideas sitting in this room being all quiet. We should get all this urgency out of our minds for a bit and enjoy today. Maybe we’ll even get an idea as we take a trip around the kingdom. It’ll be fun,” Watame said with a big smile.

Listening to her suggestion, I remembered that this was the same idea I had yesterday before I met Towa. Watame was right. We weren’t really getting anywhere just thinking in this room.

“What do you think, you two?” I looked to Kanata and Towa. “I actually agree that it’s a great idea. It’ll help us get rid of our stress.”

Kanata and Towa smiled. Both of them raised their thumbs.

It’s official: we were going sightseeing.

Chapter Text

Towa didn’t have any clothes other than the cloak she currently had. Kanata was a little bit luckier than Towa because Towa’s clothes burned as she crashed into this universe. She decided that she would just get some later and went with us wearing her cloak. It was a nice-looking cloak so no one saw any problem with it.

We just threw preparation to the wind and stepped out of the inn without any places to visit in mind. There was only one rule. If any of us wanted to go somewhere, we bitches were going there. I led them to the first stop of today, which was one of the knick-knacks stores I saw yesterday. We all had a nice time just looking at the many products. They were all either shaped or themed around candies and the moon. Most of them were also colored pink or bright purple, though I would notice the rare soft blue color on a few of the items.

I quickly had enough of the knick-knacks store but the others were clearly not done exploring. I decided to go outside and wait for them.

“Nnnaaaaaaaaaaa~!”

Just as I was exiting the store to get some fresh hair, a yelling person suddenly crashed into me. Two normal people would probably both fall into the ground. However, being a dragon with exceptional strength, I didn't even flinch when that person hit me so she fell to the ground by herself.

“Ow-nora!”

Nora? I heard her ass crash hard unto the stone path.

I approached her. “Excuse me, are you okay?”

As she rubbed her hip, she suddenly perked up and looked behind her.

“Uh oh-nanora!”

Nanora? She suddenly took my arms and dragged me back to the knick-knacks store. Kanata, Watame, Towa, and the store owner behind the counter were all surprised because the sound of the door opening was like a goddamn explosion with the amount of force this girl used.

“Hey, what are you doing!?”

I pulled my hand away from her grip. With the force she used on the door before, it really surprised me when I easily pulled my hand away. Not only that, she fell to the ground and was absolutely out of breath. She was heavily panting as if her life fucking depended on it. I was almost inclined to believe her life actually did depend on it.

All my annoyance at her rudeness disappeared as I saw her in this state.

“Hey, are you sure you're okay?”

She looked up at me from between the gaps of her pink hair. “Luna’s sorry, for dragging you here-nora,” she said in between her panting.

She turned her head back down, taking a moment to pant a few more times. Then she continued, “Luna was being chased by my guards so Luna had to quickly run away-nanora.”

This girl, who was apparently named Luna, had an unusually high-pitched voice. It was borderline squeaky—like an actual talking baby.

“Excuse me, did you say guards?”

Luna’s panting finally slowed down. However, she had used up all her energy and could only nod to answer back.

“Why are you running away from your guards?”

Luna coughed a few times to tune her voice before answering.

“Because they’re boring-nanora! Luna can’t do anything fun with them around, so Luna doesn’t keep them around-nora. Simple as that-nora.”

I had concerns about this. “Are you sure that’s okay?” I asked her.

“Luna kept telling them that if they stopped her from having fun because of a stupid reason, Luna would run away for the rest of the day and come back by evening-nanora. If they can’t understand that, then that’s their fault-nora.”

Luna running away seemed childish and unreasonable to me but if her guards really were stopping her from having some simple fun as she claimed, then I could at least see where she was coming from. Still, if she needed guards in the first place, then she must be somewhat of an important person. At the very least, she must’ve come from a prominent family.

Once Luna finally caught her breath, she stood up properly.

“Luna’s sorry again for crashing into you-nanora.”

“Uh, it’s fine. It’s seemed like a genuine accident, so it’s okay.”

Luna shook her head vigorously. “No-nora! It’s not okay-nanora.” She closed her eyes with a furrowed brow. It looked like she was thinking very hard.

“Luna knows-nora! She’ll help you with anything-nanora~!”

Luna looked very proud of the idea she got but I doubt she could actually help with 'anything.' She looked quite young so even if she did come from an influential family, I sincerely doubt she herself had any influence.

Luna suddenly pointed her finger near my face. Too close for comfort, in fact.

“You don’t believe Luna, do you-nora?”

“Well, can you blame me?”

“No, Luna can see why-nora. But don’t underestimate Luna-nora. Luna can do a lot more than you think she can-nanora~ Though you’re right in thinking that Luna can’t literally do ‘anything’-nanora.”

I was really impressed by this kid’s confidence. Or maybe ‘unsettled’ was a better word for it.

Kanata suddenly joined the conversation and gleefully told her, “We need to talk to a member of the royal family!”

“Kanata!” I was immediately filled with worry.

“What? It’s not like we need to keep it a secret. And it’s not like wanting to talk to a member of the royal family is a bad thing.”

I sighed. What’s done was done. I turned back towards Luna who, to my surprise, looked indifferent. You’d expect a bit more of a reaction if someone casually told you that they wanted to talk to the highest authority of the country you’re in but she looked totally unsurprised.

“If that's the case,”—Luna reached into her pouch and pulled out two badges of some kind—“then you can have this-nora~”

I took the badges she was handing out. They were shaped like a pink candy wrapper with an image of a soft purple moon in the middle. The candy wrapper even had a golden crown on its head.

“What is this?” I asked, confused at what I was just given.

Towa suddenly yelled out in shock.

“What? What is it? Why did you yell?”

Towa pointed to the badges. “That’s a royal appointment badge!”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “These are what?”

She walked fast towards me and took a closer look at the badges I was holding. “Yes, there’s no doubt about it. These are royal appointment badges. You present these to a royal guard and you get to have an immediate meeting with one of the royal families currently present in the castle.”

I managed to stop my jaw from dropping but this was a shocking revelation. I looked away from Towa and turned my attention towards the badges I was holding.

These were the fucking solution to our issues?

“Are you sure, Towa?” Watame asked.

“Yes, I am positive. I arrived in this kingdom yesterday at around the late afternoon. Before Coco found me, I was able to chat with some people in the streets and they told me about these. These are definitely those badges.”

Kanata, Watame, Towa, and I spent a few seconds just looking at the badges. Then, we slowly turned our heads toward the still-smiling Luna.

“Who are you?” I asked her.

Luna put a finger up to her mouth. ‘That’s a secret-nora~ At least for now-nanora~ Here-nora.” She reached into her pouch again and took out two more badges. “There’s four of you, so here’s two more-nora. That should be four badges-nora. Well, everyone,”—she bowed in front of us, skipped to the door, opened it slightly, then looked back at us—”see you later-nanora~!”

Then finally, Luna exited the store.

We were dumbfounded. We couldn’t believe what just happened. A random encounter just gave us the damn answer to our problem.

“Well,” Watame started speaking, “I didn’t expect my idea to work out so well.”

The tension in the room barely had the chance to start disappearing when the store’s door suddenly opened and Luna returned, poking her head in from outside.

“Oh, and one more thing-nanora!”

“What?” I asked.

“It’d probably be best to use that tomorrow instead of today-nora. Okay, bye-nora~!”

Luna’s head disappeared from the door and it closed once again.

There was nothing else we could do after what just happened with Luna. The kind store owner confirmed for us that these were real royal appointment badges like Towa said. What these badges looked like was common knowledge in the kingdom. However, what kept bothering me was the fact that these were also apparently very rare. They couldn't just keep letting anyone, civilians or otherwise, frequently visit members of royalty after all.

And yet we just out of nowhere got four of this shit all at once. The store owner even started clapping in joy for us.

For now, we decided to continue sightseeing which lasted until late at night. We even bought new clothes for Towa to wear. She looked like a cool punk. Eventually, we went back to the inn all tired. We immediately fell asleep.

And so another day had passed, and only two more days remained. With the addition of Towa, we were now a party of four. Once we woke up, we didn’t waste any time. We showered, cleaned our clothes, and immediately went to the palace gates before noon.

We were now in front of the gates and were very nervous.

“Is this really it?” Watame asked. “Are we really going to do it? I feel kind of guilty since I haven’t done much to help Kanata.”

“Now that you mentioned it, I haven’t done anything either,” Towa said. “Even if we only met yesterday, I surely could’ve done a lot more.”

“Hey now, guys!” Kanata said. “You stuck with me on this journey. That’s already more than I could’ve asked for. I was lost and all alone in this world but you guys accompanied me even though we just met. That’s plenty! And you, Towa. We’re in the same boat, so you have nothing to feel guilty about. You know this!”

“She’s right,” I told them. “You guys are kind, and you guys were kind to Kanata. If that’s not a lot, then tell me who told you that that wasn’t enough and I’ll fucking beat the shit out of them!” I flexed an arm in front of them and patted my biceps. We all laughed.

It was time. We walked to one of the two royal guards on each side of the palace gates.

“Good morning, foreign travelers! What business do you have near the palace gates today?”

I swallowed my nervousness and took out from my pocket the four badges. “We would like to use these today, please.”

At first, the guard looked a bit perplexed. Then, she recognized the badges and her eyes widened. “Oh yes!” she said. “Right away! Please follow me inside.”

The royal guard led us as we passed through the palace gates. As I finally took my first steps onto the palace grounds, my heart rate rose. I still couldn’t believe that we actually made it this far. After a lot of walking, we reached a courtyard inside the palace grounds. The royal guard led us to one of the numerous white stone seats.

“Please wait here for a moment. We will call the owner of that badge’s seal immediately. And please don’t forget to give the badges to them once the meeting is over.”

We all nodded, and the royal guard left to call for a member of the royal family. We all sat down on the wide stone seat. This seat had a nice view of the entire courtyard garden. The extravagant fountain in the middle of the courtyard made it that much prettier.

“It’s all so beautiful, isn’t it?” Watame asked.

“Yeah, it really is. This is such a great sight,” Kanata replied.

“We're so lucky to see this, aren’t we?” Towa asked.

“We are,” I said. “This is a serious meeting that we need to go through for Kanata but let’s not be too serious. Let’s enjoy this experience. It is rare, so we have the right to enjoy it.”

Watame scratched her head. “Honestly, it sort of feels like we don’t deserve it.”

Towa nodded. “I know how you feel. We didn’t really do anything to earn those badges.”

"Well, they were given to us as an apology from Luna,” Kanata said. “But yeah, I also feel what you’re feeling.” Kanata looked at me. “Don’t you feel that way too, Coco?”

“I do. I’ve been feeling so uneasy about it this entire time. But we didn’t exactly cheat to get the badges. We didn’t steal them from anyone either. Let’s think of it as a very expensive and generous gift from Luna. Gifts are made to be accepted, and we shouldn’t think of them in terms of whether we deserve them or not. We should just be thankful.”

Kanata, Watame, and Towa smiled.

“You’re right.” Kanata leaned her head on my shoulder. “We should enjoy this.”

The four of us waited long for the arrival of the member of the royal family. We waited so long that Kanata, Watame, and Towa all fell asleep waiting. Kanata leaned on my shoulder while Watame and Towa leaned on each other. They all completely took in the beautiful scenery right before they fell asleep so I’m sure that they’re sleeping happily right now.

Finally, just as I was about to give up on meeting for today, I saw a figure coming from one of the palace buildings about to approach us. The woman looked quite young, wearing a pink dress which really accentuated her pink hair.

... Pink hair?

My eyes widened as the girl approached further us until she finally stood in front of us.

“Oh my god,” I muttered to myself.

She looked really worried.

“Luna’s sorry for being extremely late-nanora. Luna kept telling them not to make the preparations too long because it’ll keep you guys waiting but they kept insisting it was fine-nora. Luna knew it wasn’t but since we were supposed to meet in the palace, Luna couldn’t just run away like she did with her guards last time-nora. They’d just catch Luna and drag her away from you, then they’ll just do what they were planning on doing anyway with the addition of a scolding-nora.”

She was uneasy. She must have really regretted making us wait. She looked at Kanata, Watame, and Towa which made her feel guiltier.

“They really enjoyed the garden.”

She looked at me, surprised.

“They played a lot in the courtyard, just exploring how big it was. They played so much that they completely forgot what we came here for. They tired themselves out and fell asleep.” I chuckled. “You’d think they were kids if you saw them.”

She put a hand to her chest and sighed in relief. She smiled at me.

“Is that so-nora?”

Kanata, Watame, and Towa all started waking up. They must’ve heard me and Luna talking. As they rubbed the sleepiness off of their eyes, they noticed the princess.

“Huh? Why are you here?” Towa asked.

Luna and I both giggled, which confused them three.

“It looks like this is as good of a time as any.” I looked at Luna. “Could you introduce yourself to us?”

She smiled once more. “With pleasure-nanora.” She took a few steps back, held the ends of her skirt with both of her hands, then slightly bent her knees and bowed her head, “Hello to everyone here. Candy Kingdom’s princess, Himemori Luna-nanora~”

That was a perfect greeting and introduction. Kanata, Watame, and Towa’s reactions were also perfect. Kanata started flailing her arms in panic, Watame was wide-eyed and smiling silently, and Towa was speechless as her eyes spiraled in confusion.

Luna restrained herself by simply giggling softly but I was laughing out loud. The three kept shifting their heads back and forth to me and Luna.

“While they’re confused, allow me to introduce the group. I am Coco, and these are Amane Kanata, Tsunomaki Watame, and Tokoyami Towa.”

“Nice to meet you all-nanora.”

“Ah! So that’s why you had so much of those badges!” Kanata said.

“Of course!” Watame responded, clapping her hands once. “It was hers to give in the first place. It’s only natural to have a lot.”

“But to give it out to random people on the streets, is that really okay?” Towa asked.

“Yep-nanora~!” Luna answered. “The badges are commonly used for important and urgent business or political meetings but there’s no rule saying that’s all they can be used for-nora. Luna wanna use it to meet fun people, so that’s how she uses them-nanora.”

I fucking laughed so hard that I started slapping my leg. “So you basically do whatever shit you want?”

“Of course-nora. That’s what Luna’s best at-nora.” She dramatically raised a thumb, with her other hand on her hip. “Now onto business-nanora. Why did you want to meet me in the first place-nora?”

The atmosphere suddenly turned serious. You could feel it in the air.

“Oh my, is Luna not supposed to ask that herself-nora?”

“No, it’s just that we suddenly remembered our serious situation,” I explained.

“Luna sees-nora. What is your situation exactly-nanora?”

Kanata raised a hand, getting Luna’s attention. “I am an angel”—Kanata pointed to Towa—“and she is a devil.” Towa waved at Luna.

“Wow-nanora~! What a rare day to see both an angel and a devil in one day, let alone together as companions-nanora.”

“Yes, and there’s a reason for that,” Towa said. “I cast a magic spell wrong. That magic spell was supposed to safely bring me to Earth. but instead, once I got there, it immediately shot me towards the sky. Kanata, who was also falling from the heavens safely, was hit by me. I suppose the sudden collision of different types of magic caused a rift to another universe to open which we both ended up going through.”

“Geez, that really is a serious situation-nanora.”

“Yes. Kanata forgave me for it and told me that I’d done nothing wrong but I still feel bad about it.”

“Towa…” Kanata sadly said.

“Well, what does that have to do with meeting a princess-nora?”

“A transportation altar,” I told her. ‘I heard before that a princess of the Candy Kingdom requested for a transportation altar. We wanted to ask where the altar was and if we could use it to send Kanata and Towa back to their destinations. We only have two days left before Kanata gets in trouble for not being where she needs to be, so any help is really appreciated.”

“A princess requested it-nora? Luna hasn’t heard of such a thing before-nanora. Could it be possible that a princess from the previous generation requested it-nora?”

“Actually, yes. I’m actually a dragon, you see.”

“Oh, Luna sees that the day just became an even rarer experience-nora. That would explain the scaly tail and the ominous yet impressive horns-nora.”

“As a dragon, I can control my sense of time. I previously set it to the natural sense of time of dragons since I didn’t really have any to change it into anything else before. I heard this info during that period, so there’s a high possibility that a princess from a previous generation, maybe even from hundreds of years ago, could’ve requested it.”

“Hmm, that does make things a bit more complicated-nanora.” Luna looked troubled.

“Yes, we know. We’re really sorry about this.”

“Hey, don’t worry, Luna’s not mad about it-nora. Besides, Luna promised she’d help-nora. And Luna can think of one thing to do-nanora.”

“Which is?” Kanata asked.

“Request for a few of the palace staff to look for records of that transportation altar-nanora. There’s bound to be records about it somewhere-nora.”

“I really appreciate the help,” I said, “but I have one concern that I hadn’t really voiced out to the rest yet.”

Kanata, Watame, and Towa looked at me with a surprised expression.

“Really? What is it?” Towa asked.

“I’m concerned that what I heard was just a rumor, and that it might not be true at all.”

Ah! I didn’t even think of that!” Kanata yelled. She turned to Towa. “Towa, what should we do!?”

“I don’t know!”

“Calm down-nora!’ Luna told the two of them. Kanata and Towa stopped panicking. “Luna really doubts that it’s just a rumor-nora.”

I was surprised. “Why, Luna?”

“Rumors spiral out of control pretty easily, don't they-nora? But what you heard was pretty normal-nanora. It's especially unusual if we consider the fact that it reached the ears of a dragon, which I heard commonly lived far away from human societies-nora. You just heard that a princess requested a transportation altar-nanora. If this was just a rumor, crazy details would probably be added as it got around-nanora. Perhaps something like 'she’s gonna use it to summon armies from hell and take over the world’ or ‘she’s planning to use it to elope with a secret lover to escape an arranged marriage-nora.”It would've been full-fledged fiction by the time it got to you-nora."

The examples she used for the motives were surprising, and also concerning, but she made a good point. Rumors naturally spread like wildfire. When rumors reached a new ear, a person’s own interpretation usually twisted what they actually heard. This twisted new version was what gets passed on. The process could even repeat, and so rumors could get so twisted that it's practically separate from the original rumor. The fact that the information I got reached my ear without a single embellished detail gave credibility to Luna’s words.

“Guys, I think Luna’s right. The possibility is still there but based on what Luna said, I think there’s a slightly higher likelihood that what I heard wasn’t just a shitty rumor.”

Watame looked like she was trying her best to understand.

“I don’t really get something this complicated but what I do know is that Coco is smart. I trust what she says.”

“I second that!” Kanata excitedly said, raising a hand up.

“Alright-nanora~!” Luna joyfully exclaimed. “We’ve put aside that worry for now-nora. Here’s a more pressing issue-nanora.”

“What!? There’s something else?” Towa worriedly asked.

“Sadly, yes-nora. Since the only information we have about this transportation altar is that a Candy Kingdom princess requested it, searching the palace for records of it would take at least until midnight-nanora.”

All four of us just let out our own sounds of distress.

“Exactly-nora. So even if we knew that Coco’s information is 100% true, I’m afraid you would only be able to use this information tomorrow-nanora.”

I hissed in annoyance.

“So we would literally have only one day left. This is gonna be a goddamn tight schedule.” Even I found myself feeling a little bit down by this. Kanata held my hand.

“Don’t worry, Coco. We’re gonna do it. We’re going to Japan. You’ll get me there. Not because you promised or because you have to but because you want to and you can do it. I believe in you.”

I was taken aback by this angel’s words. I was in awe. Due to how casual we’ve been with each other all this time, it made me forget that she really was a literal angel.

I smiled at her.

“Yes, you’re right. We will get there. And Towa’ll be coming too.” I leaned outward slightly and looked at the purple-haired devil. “Isn’t that right, Towa?”

“You bet it is.” Towa gave a confident smile as she gave us a thumbs up.

“Don’t forget about me!” Watame happily said. “I’m going to Japan too!”

I was surprised by Watame’s out-of-the-blue declaration.

“Are you sure? It's probably a one-way trip.”

“I want to go to Japan if all of you are going. Besides, with how much the four of us have gone through, I’m sure we can find a way to travel between worlds easily.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as you think it is,” Towa told her.

“But if we decide to do it, we’re sure to accomplish it,” Kanata said. “Because we’re all great friends!”

We were all confident in this mission. It was because we had each other. And imagine, a week hadn’t even passed yet since we all met each other. Who knows how closer we all could become if we spent more time with each other? I felt myself becoming happier just thinking of it.

Luna was smiling at us. “You guys seem really happy-nora. Luna’s really glad that she can help you-nanora~”

“Thank you, Luna,” Kanata told her. “Thank you so much.”

“It’s no problem-nanora. So all you need to do now is sit back, relax for the rest of the day and just come back here tomorrow-nora. Luna’ll make sure to be early this time-nora. Also, keep those badges-nanora. Luna’ll explain to the guards that she’s making you come back tomorrow so you’ll need those again-nora.”

“Alright.” I tossed the badges in the air and caught them again with some dramatic flair. “Tomorrow it is then. The moment of truth.”

Chapter Text

I knew that despite being happy and confident, we all still felt a bit uneasy about the fact that we had so little time left to get Kanata and Towa to Japan. I could even see it on Luna’s face when we said our goodbyes for the day to her. Despite her childishness, she was a kind girl after all. The rest of the day after that, we just spent the whole day in a café talking about the past days. We wanted to just talk and talk until our voices gave out and we had to go back to the inn. Neither of those happened. We talked all throughout the night and barely noticed when the sun was already halfway up the horizon. When we eventually did notice, we laughed as we hurried our asses back to the inn to at least shower before our second meeting with Luna.

This was it. Towa aside, Kanata only had one day, today, left before she was failed by the Celestial Academy. We weren’t gonna waste any time today.

I just took my first step outside the inn when someone running took hold of my arm and dragged me along. Kanata, Watame, and Towa were surprised by me just suddenly running away from them and so they followed suit, chasing after me and this person grabbing me.

“Hey, what the fuck are you doing!?”

I was about to pull my arm away from this person’s grip when she turned to look at me. I recognized her immediately.

“Luna!?”

We kept running until we took a turn and entered an alleyway. Kanata, Watame, and Towa eventually entered the alley as well. All four of us stared at Luna, confusion so blatant on our faces, as she dropped to her knees and panted even harder than when we first met her in that store. It took her a minute to even try to conjure up the energy to speak.

“What’s wrong, Princess?” Kanata asked her. “I thought we were supposed to meet at the palace?”

Luna finally caught her breath, or at least some of it, and stood up properly before answering.

“We have a problem-nanora.”

“What? Did you not manage to find any info?” I asked. The fear on Kanata, Watame, and Towa’s faces was immediate.

“No-nora. Luna has it-nanora. Right here-nanora.” Luna reached into her pouch, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to me. “There’s the location of the altar-nora. And also instructions on how to supply it with magic and actually use it-nora.”

As I heard her words, I became excited as I quickly unfolded the piece of paper. There it was, the location of the altar. It was somewhere near the kingdom, a little bit of a walk outside the kingdom from its northern wall’s gates.

As I was about to be overcome with joy, I remembered Luna mentioning a problem.

“What's the problem then?”

“The problem is that this kingdom is too damn strict with proceedings-nanora. Luna already explained to them the urgency of the matter and they wouldn’t even give her the time of day-nora. They just thought she was being a spoiled child again-nora.”

“What happened, exactly?” Towa asked.

Luna composed herself first. She must’ve realized she was so close to just bursting into a rage. She took deep breaths before speaking.

“Apparently, the royal council wants to make you guys go through a long procedure for them to give you permission to use that altar-nanora. Yes, that altar, which this kingdom and its royalty had forgotten for generations-nanora. They just decided that they suddenly care about people using it even though they themselves haven’t used it for years and years and forgot about it-nora. If they cared so much about random people using it, they should've kept an eye on it from the very beginning-nora! It’s honestly so frustrating-nanora.”

Fucking hell, I didn’t think this sweet princess could portray so much genuine damn anger in her squeaky high-pitched voice but here I was witnessing it. Still, this really was a new problem that we had to resolve again. And so close to the fucking finish line too.

“So, what can we do?” I asked her.

“To be honest, Luna doesn’t really know-nora.”

I didn’t blame Luna for not having an answer. This shit was unexpected for all five of us. But we had to find some way of getting through this day successfully.

Watame raised her hand. “This may be a bold suggestion but how about we just don’t follow the rules?”

“Huh? What do you mean, Watame?” I asked.

“I mean, we have the location and instructions. How about we go there and just use it? They can’t really stop us, especially since they don’t even know we’re going there today. And since Luna regularly runs away, they may end up thinking that this is just one of her episodes again. Even if today wasn’t the deadline for our journey together, today would be the greatest shot we have at using that altar without getting caught.”

I looked at this little fluffy gentle and kind sheep girl, then smiled.

“That is a devious little plan you got there.” I snapped my fingers. “I like it. What do you say, bitches? Should we just go over there and basically do whatever the fuck we want?”

Kanata, Watame, Towa, and Luna raised their fists up and yelled out, “Yeah!”

Kanata suddenly embraced Watame which surprised her, causing her to fidget with just the cutest embarrassed face ever. Meanwhile, Towa did the same to Luna. The princess was surprised but didn’t mind it as much as Watame did. I gave the two a knowing smirk. I tossed the piece of paper to Kanata. The angel unfolded the paper and looked at it before flapping her wings and flying to the skies, carrying Watame with her who yelled the most beautiful yell I’ve ever heard. Towa used her magic to conjure up dark wings and used them to follow Kanata, flying up while carrying Luna. As I watched them fly out of my sight, I knew where to go and I did what I had to.

I ran as fast as fucking possible just to avoid another potential problem popping up. I took care not to hit anyone—not even just a graze—as I ran down the streets with all of my extraordinary strength because it could lead to them getting hurt.

I was now at the northernmost wall. I saw the long line up to the gates and immediately decided that the wait wasn’t worth it. I ran up towards the wall and the moment my foot touched the damn wall, I started running vertically upwards. Time was of the essence, and I was going to get to my destination quickly. Nothing was gonna get in my damn fucking way.

When I got to the top of the wall, I turned towards the location of the altar. With all my strength, I kicked myself off of the floor and launched myself. I ended up pretty high in the air and it took a while for me to actually start falling. I was in the air for so long that I started thinking that I may have used too much strength. When I finally started falling, I could see Kanata, Watame, Towa, and Luna from far away, standing in the middle of a grass field.

I landed on the ground hard, causing most things around me to get blasted away by the force of my landing. As I patted off all of the dust that got on my clothes due to my landing, I saw the four of them. They all heard the crash, so they looked right towards me—Kanata was waving at me. I waved back as I ran towards them.

“This is the place?”

“No doubt about it-nanora.”

I looked all around but all I could see was an empty grass field, save for a few flowers and branches.

“Where is it?” Watame asked.

Luna turned her head side-to-side until she saw a hollow log nearby. She walked towards it, dropped to her knees, and put her hand inside the log. All of us looked confused as Luna silently did her thing. More of her arm entered as she kept trying to reach for something inside. Her eyebrows raised and she did a pull motion with her arm inside the log. Suddenly, the sounds of machines and turning gears filled the entire grass field. The noises were loud as shit. On one part of the field, we saw grass slowly sliding open to the sound of the machines. Hidden under the dirt and grass was a trapdoor that led to somewhere underground, which was now sliding open. The sounds of the machines stopped when the trapdoor was completely opened. For everyone’s safety, I hurried to its entrance to check it out first. It was a stairway leading further down to what I assumed was a secret underground cave hideout. Everyone soon followed behind me.

“That looks a bit creepy,” said Towa. “I kinda like it.”

“Well, it does fit your aesthetic,” Kanata said. “I like the atmosphere too but it’s kinda too much for me right now.”

I held out my hand to Kanata. “Kanata, please give me the paper.”

“Here you go.” Kanata neatly put the paper on my palm.

“Just in case there’s something shitty waiting for us down there, I’ll be going alone for now. I skimmed the instructions earlier. Once the altar conjures up a portal, it stays there for at least a minute. The first person to enter has to think of the place they want to go to and the portal will become a gateway to get there for any other person following after the first one. So once I make sure it’s safe, I’ll call Kanata so she can go first.”

“I really, really want to go with you,” Kanata said,” but if you really insist, then we can stay right here.” She proudly pointed downwards to the ground with a smile.

I gave them a thumbs-up before turning around and climbing down the stone stairs. It was damn dark as one would expect of an underground cave. I figured I just had to power through the darkness but when I stepped off the final step of the stone stairs, magical lights suddenly appeared on the cave walls. They appeared in pairs, with lights appearing on each side of the cave walls, continuing down the tunnel until it reached the end where it revealed our goal. Right there was the transportation altar that we needed to operate. I hurried towards it. I quickly unfolded the paper instructions and carefully read them. Once I understood it all, I started preparing the transportation altar. I was very unaware of what was currently going on outside the underground cave.

Kanata, Watame, Towa, and Luna were all just waiting on top of the stairs. They didn’t have anything else to do but wait. They would’ve been more worried about the person who just entered the big, dark, unknown underground cave but since it was me who entered, they were more than confident that I would be safe.

“Hey, can I tell you guys something?” Kanata asked.

“Go ahead,” Watame answered.

“I told Coco that having a name is wonderful, and it really is. But she only chose a first name. She doesn’t have a last name. I really feel like she should have one.”

“Well, do you have any suggestions?” Towa asked her.

“I got Coco’s name through some kind of wordplay, so I want to make it simple this time. I saw the video games that she had in her cave. She seemed to really like a certain video game series. I don’t want to pick her name this time so maybe I’ll just suggest that she pick the last name of a character she liked from that series. It was set in Japan too and since we’ll be going to Japan, it’ll be perfect.”

“That sounds wonderful-nanora.”

They all smiled as they were having a peaceful conversation. Then, to everyone’s terror and surprise, a spear suddenly came flying towards Watame. She was about to be hit when Towa cast a dark magic shield and sent it directly in front of Watame’s face, preventing the spear from fatally hitting her. Watame was so scared that she lost all strength in her legs and she fell to her knees. Kanata and Towa all stood in front of her to protect her from whoever attacked them just now. Luna stood there, also horrified at what just happened.

Suddenly, she was pulled aside by someone.

“Princess!”

Luna looked at the person who pulled her away, and she was shocked to discover that it was a royal guard.

“What are you doing-nora!?”

“We’ve heard that you’ve been kidnapped, so we immediately headed for the place you were investigating.”

Luna went wide-eyed. “Hah!? Who the hell said I was kidnapped-nora!?”

Luna heard the sound of clashing objects. She looked behind her and saw that many royal guards were attacking Kanata and Towa with spears. The two were keeping themselves and Watame safe with magic shields but they were hesitant to fight back. She tried to run towards them but was grabbed by the guard she was just talking to.

“Princess, stop! It’s dangerous to approach these criminals.”

“Wait just a second-nanora! They’re not criminals-nora. I came here with them. Willingly-nanora!”

She was pulled further away by the guard. “Please, Princess. Stay here for your safety!”

“But—!”

The royal guard turned away from her and went towards Kanata, Towa, and Watame to attack them as well.

Luna stood there silent for a moment.

“What the hell-nora?” she muttered. “I thought you were supposed to be saving me-nora?”

Her hands started balling up into a fist and she clenched her teeth. “Then why the hell are you not listening to me!?”

Kanata and Towa just focused on defending for now. Both of them didn’t want to hurt anyone needlessly.

“Towa! Let’s just keep protecting Watame.”

“Agreed. Watame, stay right—” Towa looked behind her to find Watame but the sheep girl wasn’t there. Towa was horrified. “Kanata! Watame isn’t here!”

“What!?”

Due to the momentary distraction, both Kanata and Towa let their focus down and their magic shields became weak. One hit on each of their weakened magic shields and the breaking of the shields caused them to get blasted away. They crashed into the ground hard, which rendered them weak and unable to stand up.

Back down the cave, I just finished conjuring up the portal when somebody suddenly grabbed my shoulders. I was surprised but held back the instinct of instantly attacking. When I turned around, Watame was standing there looking worried.

“Coco! Help!”

I instantly got concerned over her words.

“Why!? What happened?”

“Kanata and Towa are being attacked by Candy Kingdom guards. I think they have the wrong idea about us!”

“What?”

This was such a shitty problem. If Kanata and Towa were being attacked, then there’s no way we could properly enter the portal. We couldn’t enter all at once. We needed to enter one by one or else the portal could become fucking unstable.

I stood there, thinking of what to do when my attention turned to the portal itself. That’s when I knew I was going to do something crazy even for a dragon.

“Watame, step back.”

Watame nodded and walked a couple of steps back away from me. I slowly walked towards the portal. I had to be careful or else I could accidentally go in. I held my hands out towards the portal and attempted the stupidest fucking thing I could think of. If magic was expelled from the inside, then this portal made of magic could also be absorbed from the outside and sent inside my body.

The first second of my attempt was riddled with absolute hellish pain, and with every second the pain just increased. No wonder this act was always considered suicide among regular human magicians. Thank god I wasn’t a human, nor was I a regular dragon. I kept absorbing and absorbing the portal until all of its magic was completely inside of me.

When the tiniest bit of magic finally disappeared into me, my body started showing reactions. I was shaking uncontrollably and sparks were coming out of my body. I swear I was changing colors too. I looked like a real-life glitching person.

“Are you okay?” Watame started to walk towards me.

“Wait!” I said. “Don’t come near. I’m a bit unstable right now.” The sparks coming out of my body suddenly became sporadic in their intensity. Watame backed off a bit.

“Go outside. I’ll be right behind,” I told her.

Watame nodded and ran outside. Persevering through the weird sensations all over my body, the glitching finally seemed to stop for now. The magic must’ve stabilized in my body. I managed to run properly down the tunnel and up the stairs. I kept Watame in my sight so that I could protect her if something tried to attack her.

As I reached the outside, I saw Kanata and Towa and their shields being shattered by the onslaught of spears from the Candy Kingdom guards. Their shattering shields caused them to get blasted away. They crashed into the ground hard, and it seemed like they were too weak and unable to stand up.

“Hey, look at me, you fucking bitches!” I yelled out, getting the guards’ attention. They all started to point their spears at me. I scoffed at them. “Do you want to witness the wrath of a fucking dragon, you miserable pieces of shits!?”

I punched the ground with all of the strength I could muster. My single punch into the ground had such great force that everyone standing lost their balance at the resulting shaking. I held Watame who was near me to keep her from falling to the ground. I then took hold of her wrist and I started to run towards Kanata and Towa who were still on the ground.

While still holding Watame’s wrist, I held Kanata’s hand with my free hand. “Kanata!”

“I’m here,” she said with an energetic voice. Her voice was only slightly weaker than normal. “Can’t move my body for now. It’ll probably be fine in a minute but I’m guessing we don’t have that long.”

“We'll be fine. Just as long as you start thinking about Japan now.”

“Think about Japan?”

“Yes. Hold Towa’s hand, close your eyes, and then focus on Japan. Don’t worry. I am here. trust me.”

Kanata smiled at me and nodded. Towa, who was also awake, took the initiative and held Kanata’s hand. Kanata closed her eyes and began to think deeply. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully. As she focused, I also started focusing. Just like any other magic power, I tried “releasing” the portal magic, which would hopefully allow us to successfully transport to the place that the person who was holding me was thinking of.

It seemed to be working. Our bodies started glowing, and we were almost completely covered in light. Suddenly, somebody grabbed my arm. I looked at this person and was surprised to see that it was Luna. I was shocked and confused. She looked absolutely fucking pissed and determined to keep her grip on my arm. Even if I wanted to shake her off, it was too late. The ground around us started shaking. Sparks began appearing all around us. In a single second, all of us converged into a singular spear of light that shot up toward the sky, leaving a devastating crater on the ground we were just on.

And just like that, we were gone.

We arrived in a literal flash on the roof of some building. After a few seconds of being confused and disoriented, all five of us finally gathered our strength. After we all managed to stand up, we just looked at each other, all of us making sure that we were all right. Luna was in for a fucking scolding from me but that would have to come later. Without saying a word, all of us walked towards the edge of the roof and looked below. I knew that this was going to be our destination but I still couldn’t believe it. I was actually here, standing on some building’s roof in Japan.

Kanata raised both of her hands. “Yes!” she yelled out.

Towa tackled her with a big hug, followed by Watame, and all three of them fell to the ground. They were all laughing. Luna was feeling hesitant to join them, so I sneaked up behind her and pushed her towards the pile. She lost her balance and fell towards them. All three of them safely caught Luna, and they all started laughing again—now Luna was happily laughing with them.

I was about to join them when I was suddenly hit with a sharp pain in the pit of my stomach. I yelled very loud, catching the attention of the four.

“Coco, are you alright?” Kanata started to walk towards me when sparks suddenly started appearing around me again. It wasn’t fucking over yet. Some of that portal magic was still in my body and it was becoming fucking unstable again. Suddenly, I flashed into another location on the roof. Kanata, Watame, Towa, and Luna looked behind them but before they could even properly see me at my new location, I flashed again into another location. I kept flashing and flashing to different locations and the four kept trying to look at me with no success. Then, I stopped right back where I started.

Kanata tried to reach for me. I weakly held out my hand when I suddenly flashed and teleported up in the air. The four looked up at me.

“Guys…,” I muttered.

“Coco!” They all yelled out.

Suddenly, I lost control of my transformation magic and turned back into my purple dragon form. After my body rapidly glowed in varying colors for a few seconds, I felt a sharp pain in my neck before flashing to a new location again. All I could hear as I flashed somewhere else was Kanata’s fading voice yelling out “Coco!” for a second time.

My surroundings were suddenly covered by black smoke and dust. I must’ve crashed into this new location. I sensed the presence of people so I shut my mouth to stay silent, preparing myself for any possible attacks. I waited for the dust to settle.

When it finally did, what I saw surprised me. It surprised me more than it had any business to. It was just a regular scene that I was seeing right now. Four girls were sitting on couches. The two couches were facing each other—separated by a table in between the couches—and two girls sat on each. Their hands were about to reach for the cups on the table in front of them but became stuck in that position as they looked at me, the weird mythical dragon who just crashed into their building.

“Um, hello?” the white-haired girl said. She had animal ears. I was almost positive they were fox ears. I also noticed the white tail. I was confused because I got the impression that this universe thought of beings like me and her as mythical, completely unaware that we came from other universes rather than being complete fiction.

Another girl, a sky blue-haired girl with rabbit ears, looked like she wanted to say something but was very hesitant. The way she presented herself and the general aura she exuded really made it obvious that she was polite, and maybe even reserved. It contrasted with the mischievous-looking outfit she was wearing. Her braids also had several carrots stuck in them, which only further bewildered me.

“Guys?” the red-haired girl said. “Shouldn’t we make sure that he’s okay?” She had a high-pitched voice. I would’ve called it highly unusual if I hadn’t met Luna first.

“Make sure who’s okay?” the brown-haired girl wearing a red ribbon asked.

The red-haired girl pointed further into the room. All of us turned our heads to look. Due to me crashing into this building, a lot of debris was blasted away further into the room I was currently in. Then I noticed that on top of all that debris was a man. It didn’t look like he was in a fatal state but he was still very injured nonetheless. He must’ve been caught in the blast as I crashed into this building. Due to my shock, I couldn’t really say anything else.

“Holy fucking shit.”

I Am Here - Kiryuu Coco: Origin

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