Chapter Text
“This is all wrong”
Shinichi muttered to himself, his voice hoarse and shaky. His eyes laid upon the many broken pieces of equipment with a few skeletons scattered. He didn’t remember any of this before he blacked out. What he remembered was pain, a lot of it, bone-splitting even. Something or someone must have dumped him here after attacking him. He gathered his strength to stand up so that he could look around and make more sense out of the situation.
but…
He immediately stumbled backwards, sideways, forwards, and landed on all fours. Somehow, he could not balance himself standing how he always used to. Was it light-headedness? He tried again. Same result. Third time’s the charm. Nothing changed. Frustration began to build up. He looked for something that he could use to help balance him. For some reason, every object looked small. Eventually he managed to find a sturdy long wooden object. However, as he reached out to grab it, he had a clear look at his “hands” the first time.
They weren’t hands.
They were long sprawling claws and they were scaly.
Shinichi quickly retracted his arms and thoroughly inspected them, the claws, the scales. His entire arm had become something more akin to that of a mighty bird. This is really wrong. Clutching his face in confusion, he found out that it too, was not what he remembered. His face used to be sharp, but not this sharp. It was like he had a beak. He worriedly looked at the rest of himself. He had a tail and a pair of wings. His entire body was covered in black scales with bluish sheen. Everything was wrong.
How did this happen?
Did he actually cause the destruction of this place?
That can’t be right.
No.
Once a proud Justice Knight, a peacekeeper of the Village of Beika, Shinichi could never come to conclusions before all the impossibles had been eliminated. The state of disrepair of whatever building he was in suggested it was abandoned months, or even years ago. The skeletons were also old. There was nothing to suggest he had been here for that long. It was spring when he left the village. It was still spring here. He sat and recalled what exactly went down. The memories were starting to come back to him.
That fine day, he was taking a stroll with his childhood friend Ran. They were in a flower meadow not so far from the town. His helpers were with him too. Ayumi the scribe, Mitsuhiko the squire, and Genta the other squire… oh. Where were they? What happened to them? Shinichi looked around. He found only their equipment along with his own stacked messily in the middle of the room. They were undamaged and clean so the trio must still be okay. He began walking and searching for them. Walking quadrupedally felt weird at first but he quickly felt comfortable with how his limbs now move.
While searching for them, he recalled more of that day. Just after sunset, he parted from Ran. He vaguely remembered something about seeing someone shady. A man in raven-black robe and a suspicious merchant. In the woods, no less. His helpers were with him. Then there was another one. They had shiny black metal staff. Then… Then…?
In a room that appeared to be what’s left of the once spacious grand dining hall were three small dragons. One was yellow, chubby, and the largest of the three. Another was green, long, but had proper hands. The last was pink with leafy mane and looked harmless. The colors corresponded to the trio’s clothes the day they followed that robed man. Shinichi sat down beside them and covered them with his large black wings. He remembered now. Another robed man with long hair emerged behind them with that strange staff. He used his body to shield them from a spell and then everything went black. Then they must have dumped them here. Even if they didn’t die from that, they had become a dragon and people would assume they destroyed this place anyway.
“How on earth am I going to explain this to anyone?” Shinichi grumbled to himself
.
.
Days turned weeks and months. Frigid early spring gave way to new leaves and warm sunlight as the stars rolled past the sky. One cozy morning, a drunken man lost his way and soon found himself sitting at a dining hall of a castle. There was no one around, but there was a stack of nicely cooked meat and fresh fruits before him. The man wasted no time to gobble them all up. He yelled his gratitude out loud when he saw a maid and a pair of butlers emerging from the doorways. In a drunken daze, he didn’t realize he just saw dragons. They weren’t happy about it though.
“Ah! He ate all our food!”
“No! Our hard work!”
“Oi!! What were you thinking!?”
Hisses and growls echoed throughout the dining hall. The drunken man stood up with a tipsy dance. He proudly posed, fist on his chest.
“The great Knight Sheriff Mouri at your service! Hwah ha ha!”
“He’s completely drunk” said the pink one
“Hey snap out of it!” the yellow chubby dragon nudged and shook the Knight Sheriff.
Alarmed by his friend’s action, the green dragon tried to stop him. “W-Wait Genta!”
While he was small compared to Shinichi’s black dragon form, Genta wasn’t that small. His action of nudging the Knight Sheriff was more akin to having a park bench shoved at him. That put some sense back into the man, but the timing couldn’t have been worse. Sir Kogoro stumbled backwards, his eyes beginning to clear. There were dragons in front of him. Not one, three! In a flash, his eyes were no longer that of a tipsy man. He was glaring at them with caution and threat, and a drawn sword in hand.
“Foul dragons! What do you want with me!?” anger filled his voice.
“You stole our food!” The chubby dragon replied with equal anger.
“We worked so hard gathering them!” The leafy pink dragon growled with disappointment.
“Nonsense! The food was fresh and cooked! You three don’t even have hands!”
The three children frowned, grumbling. Mitsuhiko had properly functional hands and he was the one who cooked it. He raised his hand and was about to say something, but it didn’t seem like the Sheriff Knight would listen anyway. The offended pouting of the other two was interpreted as signs of aggression by Kogoro.
He raised his sword at them. “Leave, vile beasts!”
Just then, a mighty claw struck the sword and a massive black shadow loomed over him. Glowing blue eyes of menace glared directly into the Sheriff Knight’s. Colors drained from his face as he scrambled to pick up his sword and turned his back to the dragons. The black dragon stood with wings opened wide, covering the three smaller dragons behind him. Sir Kogoro was unprepared and utterly outmatched. Just as he was about to hightail out of there, he heard a yell.
“You better pay for stealing our food! Give us your greatest treasure!” Genta blurted out.
“Argh! I’m sorry!” A quick response from the Sheriff Knight echoed, but he was gone fast.
Shinichi sighed and crouched down to his three helpers. He was glad they were safe. Though it would be a lie if he wasn’t upset that he didn’t even get to talk before the father of his best friend just cowardly ran away. Also, what was Genta thinking? Ayumi and Mitsuhiko had similar concerns.
“Oi oi, what was that for, Genta?” Shinichi asked with mild annoyance in his voice.
“Why did you say you want treasures???” Mitsuhiko quickly added his question.
“We just wanted him to say sorry! And maybe help us out!” added Ayumi, with a frown.
Genta rubbed his head with his plumpy wings. “Hehe… I just had to.”
The other three sighed in unison. Their chubby friend had not realized the weight of what he said yet. They all sat in a circle formation and started discussing.
Mitsuhiko worriedly started. “We just directly played into greedy dragon tales”
“Aw come on, that uncle spent all his fortune on gambling so his only remaining treasure must be food, right?”
“No?” All three replied at once.
“Wait, really?” Genta was perplexed.
Mitsuhiko sighed and crossed his arms. “He’s not you, Genta” Shinichi and Ayumi simply nodded.
At Beika Village, everything was peacefully normal. Knight Sheriff Kogoro was back home and at his work table. His daughter, Ran, went about her day with cleaning chores. Out of nowhere, he told Ran he saw dragons and the fact that the dragons wanted their treasures. Both of them stared at each other in disbelief and awkward silence until Ran broke it by asking how much her father drank. The idea of talking dragons was too absurd for them. It was much more likely that Kogoro dreamt of the whole thing while in a drunken state and both of them agreed. They had a laugh.
However, their seemingly slow day was interrupted by the arrival of three concerned parents. They were the parents of Shinichi’s helpers. The trio had not been seen in months nor they wrote back to their families. That was really strange, Ran thought. Normally Shinichi and the children would inform them or send letters, or both. The trio’s parents promised handsome rewards, causing Kogoro’s eyes to light up with glee. After they left, the father and daughter sat at their dining table.
“Dad… Can’t you make yourself not look so greedy?” she sighed disappointedly.
“Ran” He looked at her, eyes sharp, unlike before.
“I plan to look for them anyway. They are part of the village.” His response was firm.
Smiles were brought back to Ran’s face. She was relieved and proud.
“So, tell me where you last saw them, including that arrogant knight brat.”
“Hmm… I last saw all four of them together heading into the woods next to the west meadow… They all seem to disappear at the same time.” Her worries were clear, but she was also a little irritated at how her father called her friend.
“West meadow huh” He contemplated for a bit then stood up. “I’ll go there”
Ran stood up too. “Wait, dad! Let me go too!”
“Hey now, why would you want to go there?”
“I want to help! I am the last person who saw them”
“Fine.” he groans. “Grab a sword or something and don’t get in my way”
And so, they headed into the woods. Kogoro proudly wore the light version of his armor as both protection and display of authority. His sword valiantly glistened on his back. His outfit clinked as he walked. Meanwhile, Ran wore simple travel clothes. It was comfortable to move around and drew little to no attention. She had no dedicated strap for carrying swords so it was held sheathed in her hand. She showed no signs of fatigue no matter how long they walked. It was as if the sword weighed just as much as a piece of paper to her. In contrast, her father had to stop to catch breaths a few times throughout their trek.
When they arrived at the forest, it was rather quiet. The usual animal sounds were there, but they were quieter, more distant. The leaves rustled but not from the wind. The forest was not lifeless. It was as if the wildlife were hiding from something. The Mouri duo began searching for clues. There were some old footprints, animal tracks, and bits of fabric. Someone and something were here, but were they who they were looking for? The Knight Sheriff pondered possibilities and focused his thoughts. Deeply focused and distracted, a black shadow went unnoticed by him as it passed behind shaded trees.
But it wasn’t completely missed. Ran caught a brief glimpse and wanted to make sure it wasn’t just her eyes playing tricks on her. She walked down the villager-made dirt path in that direction. Slightly off the path, she found scraps of Justice Knight customary cape. In haste, she crouched and put down her sword to get a closer look.
“Shinichi…” she muttered
Unbeknownst to her, Ran was being watched. The dark shadow stood still, its faintly glowing blue eye locked onto her. The gentle hands of the daughter scooped up the remnants of the scarf. To her, these signs weighed much more than her steel broadsword. Among the scraps, she also found a piece of wood with a peculiar carving. The wood was chipped, some details lost, but she could easily make out the carving. It was a stylized image of a bird in a circle. It looked unusual no matter how many times she looked at it. She put everything she found into a satchel before walking back to her father.
Suddenly, she heard shuffling rustling nearby, causing her to turn around back to where she originally was. There was a hooded figure. To Ran’s luck, their eyes didn’t meet. Something metallic in the hands of the mysterious person glinted. Ran prepared to draw her sword.
FWOOOSH
The dark shadow flew out of the trees and snatched Ran away into the skies. The sunlight revealed the black dragon to them. Both Ran and her father now realized the encounter was no mere phantoms of drunkenness. The dragons were real, and they were really after his treasures: his beautiful daughter Ran.