Chapter 12:

How Many Burgers Does It Take to Satisfy a Druk Princess?

DragonBorn


“A long time ago, when dragons still lived in the human realm and it was known as the One Realm, both beings lived harmoniously with each other. Dragons brought rain and light for the humans; taught them knowledge, magic, and skills such as agriculture and fishing; and protected them from calamities and evil. In turn, humans shared their resources with the dragons and provided them with food and shelter; they worshipped the dragons as gods and built them shrines and gave them offerings. This symbiotic relationship between humans and dragons lasted for millennia. But then, humans began to question the superiority of dragons and rebelled. They used their knowledge of magic and weapons that was taught to them by the dragons and declared war. A battle had begun between humans and dragons and the latter quickly won and quelled the rebellion. However, the humans weren’t satisfied with this loss. They formed their own clandestine organization that was dedicated to rid the world of dragons so that humans can live free from terror and servility. This was the beginning of the Dragon Slayer Corps. The corps refined their powers and abilities and focused on gathering knowledge that would give them the advantage, namely weaknesses and methods of execution. A new war broke out. The Dragon Slayer Corps eventually succeeded in driving the dragons to a corner. The dragons feared for the existence of their kind and relented to surrendering the Earth over to the humans. They then created an entirely new realm to exist in, parallel to the Earth and separated by magic. However, even with the dragons gone, the dragon slayers still exist today, ready for their enemies' return.”

Tatsuya listened in awe to the tale told by Kanjomizu. It reminded him a bit of those mythological tales his parents would tell him when he was a child, like the tale of “Susanoo and the Yamata no Orochi” or “Perseus and Cetus”, or “Thor and Jormungandr”. On one hand, he could see why the dragon slayers did what they did, but his sympathies gravitated more towards the dragons. Despite what the dragon slayers stood for, it seemed that the dragons were the ones who got the short end of the stick.

“And now, with dragons entering the human world for their own personal reasons, the dragon slayers have gotten even more tense,” added Aika. “I’ve often heard that they are a ruthless and merciless bunch who will even slay innocent dragons! However, now that dragons have successfully integrated themselves within human society, the dragon slayers have been more careful about their activities.”

“What do you mean by “successfully integrated into human society”?” asked Tatsuya.

“Such as becoming teachers, social workers, doctors, idols, actors, and even holding political office,” answered Arashi.

“Y-You’re kidding, right?” said Tatsuya with a smile of disbelief.

“Did you know that popular Australian actor Jack Hughes is a Python? Or that British author K.J. Rowan is a Bakunawa? Or that the prime minister of Japan is really a Quetzalcoatl?” revealed Arashi.

“The most popular dragon in the human realm right now is superstar idol Ginger Sakura!” squealed Aika.

“Ginger Sakura?! The idol with four 3x Platinum albums, a global fanbase, and five songs on the Japan Hot 100, all of which are in the top five spots? The superstar idol who broke out with the all-time hit song “Dragonheart”? That Ginger Sakura?” exclaimed Tatsuya frantically.

“Yep, yep!” agreed Aika with frantic nods.

“But to think that dragons have become popular in the human realm,” mused Tatsuya. “Man, I wouldn’t believe it myself if I hadn’t known that dragons existed.”

“And it is because of many dragons becoming high-profile celebrities that the dragon slayers are finding it harder to carry out their executions,” informed Kanjomizu.

“How about the Dragonborn? What’s their relationship to that?” asked Tatsuya.

“We don’t fully know,” Kanjomizu told him with a sad expression.

“We don’t even know how they could be aware that the Dragonborn even exists,” added Aika. “The prophecy was first made apparent in our realm after all.”

“I guess the only way to know is for us to ask Natsume Torahime directly,” concluded Tatsuya grimly. It appears that in order to know why the enemy is targeting him in the first place, he would need to speak with the enemy face-to-face. This is a very dangerous circle for him to become a part of. He got up and said, “You know what, I need some fresh air.” The other girls could tell that he needed some space. And so, Tatsuya exited the house by himself and took a walk.

It was a pretty nice day outside. The sun was out and shining brightly like a truly happy star. A gust of wind blew past Tatsuya, reminding him of the battle he had yesterday with the Python and Natsume Torahime. Suddenly, the words he had heard her say yesterday repeated itself in his mind: “Next time we meet, I will take you down for sure.” She was so intent on killing him, beginning with the first day she had transferred to school, yet Tatsuya didn’t know the reason why. He would at least like to know the reason why he was being targeted for execution in the first place. However, he knew that part of the reason was his identity as the Dragonborn.

He entered the city and was walking on the sidewalk deep in thought when he noticed a young teenage girl standing outside a restaurant with a dazed look on her face. She was a little shorter than him, about the size of a senior middle school student or an incoming high school freshman, and had bright electric yellow hair in a bob cut with a very pronounced ahoge sticking out on top. Her eyes were a bright electric blue color like intense lightning bolts, yet they appeared dull and dazed, and her skin tone was of a light yellow hue. The girl was dressed in a simple yellow dress with a black belt around her waist.

Tatsuya slowly approached the girl and noticed that she was staring at the pictures of food hanging in the windows. She had on a bored and lethargic expression, yet her eyes had to them an intensity and focus that says otherwise. It felt as if she was projecting a lot of emotion through her eyes alone while her face remained devoid of any signs of positive or negative feelings. Despite the blasé expression that was written all over her face, one could feel a very strong aura emanating from her just by being close and looking at her eyes. Tatsuya felt this aura and somehow felt that this girl might be a very special person of some significance.

And then she spoke. “I’m hungry.”

Immediately, Tatsuya could feel his first impression of her shattering and the feeling he had before disappearing into nothingness. The words were unexpected and threw him for a loop. Suddenly, he began to feel a creeping feeling warning him to be careful. It could be that after having his life turned upside down by having his home invaded by dragon princesses and getting himself caught up in a war on magical drugs and trying to desperately protect himself from a very dangerous girl intent on slaying him, he had developed some kind of sixth sense tuned to forewarn him of danger. But he doubts that meeting a hungry girl will somehow lead him into trouble in the near future. It just seemed impossible!

“I’m hungry,” repeated the girl with furrowed brows. Her voice lacked vigor but the effect of each word is still strongly felt. It was clear that she meant what she said. “Hungry,” she repeated longingly.

“Um, excuse me—,” began Tatsuya, but he was immediately interrupted by a loud rumbling sound like the aftereffects of a nuclear bomb. ‘What the hell was that?’ he wondered fearfully to himself. He then saw the girl clutch her stomach and it quickly became apparent that the loud rumbling was none other than the sound of her stomach growling. ‘That’s a new one,’ thought Tatsuya with a nervous expression. He cleared his throat and attempted a second time to speak to her. “Excuse me, but what are you doing standing outside the restaurant?” he asked her kindly.

“Hungry,” repeated the girl stubbornly. “I’m hungry.”

“If you’re hungry, then why don’t you go inside?” suggested Tatsuya in a friendly manner.

She looked at him with a bored expression and gestured for him to come closer. Tatsuya did as she told him and lent his ear to her. She slowly opened her mouth and said without any shame at all, “I don’t have any money.”

Tatsuya couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. He froze up in disbelief and had to process those words a few times in his head before he could accept them as reality. Never before had he come across a person whose lack of common sense was extreme as this. She didn’t say, “I forgot my money”, or even, “I lost my money”; no, she said, “I don’t have any money.” ‘Is this girl for real?’ he asked himself doubtfully. If she was a person of lower standing then he could understand why, but based on her appearance he could assume that she is a person of middle status or possibly even higher. “Um, are you for real?” he asked her nicely.

The girl answered with a serious nod. Tatsuya didn’t know how he should act or respond; this situation was just too bizarre for him. Suddenly, the girl’s stomach growled again, unleashing another giant rumbling that made Tatsuya jump. He sighed and the nice guy inside of him surfaced. “If you want, I can treat you to a burger,” offered Tatsuya.

The girl immediately accepted his offer and grabbed his hand and rushed into the restaurant. Tatsuya ordered two burgers, one for him and one for the girl. When their order arrived, the girl quickly wolfed down the burger in three seconds flat. Tatsuya was too surprised to say anything; he could only sit and stare in awe as he watched the burger disappear into her mouth quicker than a closing Venus flytrap. There was no doubt that this one action broke countless world records. “T-That was pretty quick,” he uttered in a low voice of surprise.

“I’m still hungry,” she told him.

“W-Would you like another one?” he asked her. She replied with a nod. Once her second burger came, she quickly swallowed it like a black hole. ‘So fast!’ exclaimed Tatsuya in awe. The second burger also didn’t satisfy her hunger. This continued for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth burger. “Um, are you still hungry?” he asked her uneasily with a smile. She answered with another nod. “Say, how many burger do you think it’ll take to fill you up?” he asked her, not knowing what he’s getting himself into.

The girl thought for a minute and then held up all ten of her fingers for him to see and gestured pushing the air in front of her for a total count of three times. Tatsuya assumed she meant ten and was about to go order them when she stopped him and said, “Not ten. Thirty.”

“Oh, okay—wait, thirty?!” exclaimed Tatsuya loudly. He swallowed a gulp. He reached for his wallet and took a glimpse at his current available spending money. With a sigh, he went ahead with the order and paid for it with whatever he had left.

Once the order was brought to their table, the girl quickly took to the food like a real starving beast. One by one, she absorbed the burgers into her stomach like they were bite-sized snacks. It was like watching an army of ants consuming its prey. The giant pile of food that once stood before her like a heaping mountain quickly became nothing more than hill of empty wrappers. She was the dictionary definition of a black hole. Tatsuya was sure that even light can not escape from her if it was a burger. After she was finished with her mountain of food, her expression changed a bit and became a bit more softer and happy. She wore a small smile and seemed to be a bit more energized. “That was delicious,” she said satisfyingly. She turned to Tatsuya and pointed to the uneaten burger he still held in his hand. “Are you going to eat that?” she asked.

“Oh, sure,” replied Tatsuya. He was a little late in his response because he was still trying to process what the hell just happened. It was as if he had watched a real-life nature documentary about a predator consuming its prey in real time. It happened so fast and so effortlessly too. He took one look at the burger in his hand and glanced back to the pile of wrappers in front of the girl. With a gulp, he shot her a nervous smile and said, “Don’t mind if I do.” He ate the burger and finished it like a normal person. “W-Well then, I got to go now,” he told the girl, getting ready to get up.

“Wait,” the girl told him. Tatsuya stopped and turned his face towards the girl. In a quick flash too fast for him to process, the girl leaned forward close to his face and licked off a spot of ketchup right near his lips. “You had some sauce on you,” the girl told him nonchalantly.

Tatsuya quickly turned a bright red color and became too petrified to move. 'How could she casually do that to someone she doesn't even know?!' he exclaimed frantically to himself. Not even the girls back at home had ever done something this intimate to him! His mind exploded and entered a daze. “I-I-I need to go now,” he managed to utter aloud. Without any need for functional thought, Tatsuya quickly dashed out of the shop. He decided then and there that he had enough of “fresh air” for one day.

A week had passed. Tatsuya was walking by himself again in the city. He was glad to have a day to himself. Kanjomizu went out with Umi to shop for groceries. Arashi decided to take the day off and sleep in. Ingrid and Sylphie tended to the house chores. Aika was out walking Salazar in a quiet part of town that was far away from the public eye. Tatsuya admits that he was a bit surprised that the girls had decided to leave him alone yet again for an entire day.

While walking down the street, he spotted a familiar sight in the corner of his eye. He glanced over and saw a young teenage girl standing in front of a restaurant window. He couldn’t believe it—it was the same girl from last week! And this time, she was standing outside of a family restaurant. Remembering what happened last week, Tatsuya thought it was best to ignore her and keep on moving along. He walked a few steps forward when he bumped into two kids playing together on the sidewalk. They quickly apologized and Tatsuya simply forgave them with a kind smile. He noticed that his wallet had fallen out and reached down to pick it back up. He placed it back in his pocket and was getting ready to stand back up when he suddenly found himself face-to-face with the same girl. ‘H-How?’ he asked himself in disbelief. ‘Maybe she heard me when I bumped into those kids,’ he realized.

The girl looked at him with bored and lethargic eyes, devoid of energy and any discernible feelings. “I’m hungry,” she told him. Next thing he knew, Tatsuya found himself sitting in the restaurant next to the girl. How did he find himself in this situation again? It all happened so fast!

“Ahem. So, what do you want to eat?” he asked her with a kind smile.

“Curry,” she quickly replied back.

Tatsuya didn’t know if he should ask the next question. He was afraid it might set up his own downfall. He swallowed a gulp and decided, ‘to hell with it’, and asked the question. “H-How many do you want?”

“Forty-five bowls,” she answered back shamelessly. “Fifteen mild, fifteen spicy, and fifteen extra spicy. Also, each of the fifteen bowls should be divided into beef, pork, and chicken.”

“R-R-Right,” responded Tatsuya slowly with a nervous smile. The waitress came to take their order and Tatsuya told her exactly what the girl had told him. The waitress wore a very shocked expression herself while jotting down the order, which was very understandable considering her position. Tatsuya himself couldn’t believe that this girl was for real. The waitress took their order to the kitchen, leaving Tatsuya alone with the girl once again. He glanced over and saw that the girl was waiting patiently for the food to arrive with the same bored and lethargic expression as before. The atmosphere quickly turned awkward when neither of them talked to the other. Tatsuya didn’t really know how to break the ice; on the other hand, the girl didn’t seem at all unsettled by the silence between them. “U-Um, I’m Owatatsumi Tatsuya by the way,” introduced Tatsuya.

“Shurai,” said the girl. “My name is Shurai.”

“Nice to meet you,” Tatsuya told her with a polite smile. The girl simply replied with a nod of her head.

A group of waiters and waitresses arrived with their order. As soon as the plates were set down, Shurai quickly wolfed down each and every one of them. She shoveled the food into her mouth and left no piece of food unturned; there wasn’t even a speck of rice left on the plates she had finished! Each plate she completed came out looking new as if it had just come out of the dishwasher, making it seem as if the food it was used to serve was all one big illusion!

Tatsuya and the group of servers were all frozen in astonishment as they watched the inhuman sight before them. It wasn’t long before all of the plates were neatly stacked in three separate columns to signify Shurai’s completion of them. She wore a satisfied smile and said, “That was delicious.”

Tatsuya quickly paid the bill, which took a good chunk of his funds, and exited the restaurant with a relieved sigh. “Seriously, that girl,” he said to himself, shaking his head. He walked onwards with no clear destination in mind. As he ambled on, the clear sound of footsteps made him aware that there was someone was following him. The first thought that came to mind was Natsume Torahime—could it be that she was following him with plans to execute him as soon as they hit a less populated area? This greatly troubled him. He began to grow anxious and his body started to shake. He reached an alleyway and an idea came to mind. Maybe he can catch her off guard by leading her into a dark place and then knock her out to make his escape. He walked in and could hear the footsteps behind him doing the same. ‘This is the moment of truth,’ he told himself. Tatsuya quickly turned around and unleashed a very strong side kick. However, it seems that he was wrong about the entire thing! Just as quickly as he had unleashed it, he stopped his feet in midair upon actually coming face-to-face with the culprit. “S-Shurai?!” he exclaimed in surprise.

“Where are you going?” she asked him. She was clearly unfazed by the entire thing; the same bored and lethargic expression was displayed on her face, albeit a little more lighter and softer than before.

“More importantly, why are you following me?” he asked her. Shurai answered with a simple shrug of her shoulders. ‘That doesn’t tell me anything at all,’ he thought exasperatedly to himself with closed eyes. “Anyway, don’t you have somewhere to be?” he asked her.

Shurai thought for moment, her eyes forming a slight frown to signify that she was thinking. After what seemed to be about a minute or so of deep thought, she replied back straightforwardly, “I don’t remember.”

“I-Is this girl for real?” Tatsuya muttered in disbelief.

“I think I’ll just follow you for today,” she told him.

“Sorry, but I don’t have any plans of spending the day with a girl I just met,” he told her as politely as possible.

“Do you have somewhere to be?” she asked him.

“I…No, I don’t,” he replied back with an exasperated sigh.

“So that means that we’re in the same boat,” she concluded for herself.

“Fine,” groaned Tatsuya. “Well, where do you want to go?” he asked her with a raised eyebrow.

There was silence between them, and then a loud rumbling like the sound of an overheating boiler shook Tatsuya to his toes. “I’m hungry,” she told him. Her expression suddenly lost all of the softness and light that was gained not less than an hour or so ago.

“Again?” asked Tatsuya in shock.

“I’m hungry,” she repeated.

Tatsuya hung his head in defeat. “Where do you want to go this time?” he asked her in a slightly muffled voice.

“Ramen,” she quickly answered him.

‘That was fast,’ noted Tatsuya. And so, the two of them exited out of the alleyway and searched for a nearby ramen shop. Tatsuya wasn’t really feeling up to it but he couldn’t find a way to weasel himself out of this situation. Shurai walked closely behind him with a dazed expression on her face. She reminded him a bit of a pigeon: her scatterbrained personality, the constant bored and dazed expression she wears, the way she mooches off of him for food—the pieces were all there.

During their walk, a shop door opened and Nanami Sasuke exited out of the shop and stood right before them. He carried a bag of sweets on each arm. Tatsuya was happy to see his friend in front of him. “Sasuke!” he called out.

Sasuke turned around and happily called, “Tatsu!” He suddenly stopped and glanced down at the bags on his arms. He quickly threw his arms behind his back as Tatsuya approached him. “Are you out for a walk?” he asked Tatsuya.

“Yup, I am,” Tatsuya replied back with a smile. “Say, what did you buy?” he asked his friend curiously.

“N-Nothing,” stuttered Sasuke with a smile. Sweat lightly poured down his face like a slow downhill river.

“But I saw you carrying bags out of the store,” Tatsuya told him. “You got some sweets, right?”

“H-H-How did you know?” asked Sasuke with frantic eyes.

Tatsuya had never seen Sasuke like this before. He had always been so calm and cool about everything. This was the first time Tatsuya had ever seen his friend so agitated and unnerved. “Are you feeling alright?” he asked his friend.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” Sasuke quickly replied. He laughed nervously in a desperate attempt to reinforce his statement. The sound of rustling plastic caught his ear and he turned around to see a new girl he had never met before (Shurai) sniffing his bags.

“These sweets smell yummy,” said Shurai with a hungry look on her face.

“Hey, you, stop that,” ordered Tatsuya, quickly grabbing Shurai and bringing her back to his side. “I’m sorry,” he apologized to his friend. “This is a new girl I met at a curry shop.”

“The ladies seem to be flocking to you, don’t they,” laughed Sasuke. He took one look at the girl and immediately dropped the bags from behind his back. He got down on one knee and said, “Princess Shana of the Druk Tribe, I am forever humbled to be graced by your presence. May the Druk Tribe forever be prosperous and glorious till the end of all time.”

Tatsuya quickly glanced at Shurai, who flashed him a simple thumbs up. This reveal came straight out of left field; never in a million years would Tatsuya expect to hear those words, especially when used to describe Shurai! He felt like he was on one of those reality prank shows and they were just now revealing that it was a prank all along. “Y-Y-You’re a dragon princess?” he finally asked her in astonishment.

“Yup,” replied Shurai with a nod. “Are you a dragon too?” she asked him.

“Um, no, not really,” he replied slowly, his mind was still in the middle of processing the entire thing.

“Interesting,” she said, sniffing him. “You have a very interesting smell. It’s not like a human's but not like a dragon’s either.”

“Uh, thanks,” he said slowly. Her mention of his scent reminded him a bit of the first time he had met Aika—the fire dragon princess had said something then about not forgetting his scent. ‘I guess scents are a thing for dragons,’ he concluded. “Anyway, so you’re a dragon princess. What are you doing here?” he asked her.

“I’m looking for the Dragonborn,” she told him straightforwardly.

“The Dragonborn?!” exclaimed Tatsuya. “W-Why?” he asked her cautiously.

“For protection from them,” she simply replied back.

“T-Them?” wondered Tatsuya in a low voice. This was the first time he had heard any of this.

“Well, my princess, you are in luck,” interjected Sasuke. Tatsuya had completely forgotten that his friend was still there. “Tatsu is the Dragonborn,” revealed Sasuke with a smile.

“S-S-Sasuke, w-why would you just blurt that out?!” shouted Tatsuya frantically.

“Well, it’s the truth,” reasoned Sasuke with a sagely nod.

“I don’t think I can trust you with my secrets anymore,” muttered Tatsuya irritably.

“Besides, at least you know that she is a dragon princess and is in desperate need of protection,” Sasuke told him.

“I guess you’re right,” agreed Tatsuya. And then a thought occurred. “Wait, does that mean that she has to live in my house?” he asked. Sasuke simply laughed without giving him a straight answer. Tatsuya couldn’t believe it. He kinda knew where it was going, but he also kinda wished for it to not be so. He sighed and said, “Well, I guess it can’t be helped.”

“Looks like you’ll be having another roommate,” said Sasuke with a happy laugh.

That jab really ticked Tatsuya off. In response, he snatched one of Sasuke’s bag of sweets that were on the ground and took a peek inside. “Oh? I didn’t know that you liked eating dorayaki. Actually, this entire bag is filled entirely of dorayaki.”

Sasuke quickly snapped out his gleeful laugh and transformed into a very self-conscious and flustered mouse. “T-T-That’s—,” he stuttered, unable to form excuses that could justify the contents of the bag.

“Oh, this bag is filled with manju,” announced Shurai, taking one out of the other bag on the ground.

By now, Sasuke had turned completely into stone. “Th-Th-Th-Th…,” was all Sasuke could utter while in his catatonic state. Tatsuya approached his friend and gave him a very hard face slap. Sasuke blinked his eyes a few times and slowly returned back to reality. “T-There’s a good explanation for them,” he told his friend.

“Do you have a sweet tooth?” Tatsuya asked him.

“That’s part of it,” said Sasuke. “You see, I’m a Druk. We are known for, well, our big appetites.”

Suddenly, memories of the Druk princess wolfing down thirty burgers and forty-five plates of curry replayed in Tatsuya’s mind. ‘That makes sense,’ he thought to himself with an exasperated expression. He suddenly remembered the girls telling him that each of the dragon tribes had particular characteristics that is unique to each tribe. ‘So Druks are big eaters,' he noted.

“But that is not all,” continued Sasuke. “Druks are like electrical batteries. We have two sides to us all: a charged side and an empty side. We begin as empty batteries, devoid of energy and motivation. In order to ‘charge up’ as one would say, we have to consume huge amounts of energy in the form of food. Once charged up, a Druk’s personality changes dramatically—they become the total opposite of their empty self; they become energized, hyper, dynamic, and very overzealous. But they also become uncontrollable, since they are now literal balls of energy. This is where a third option comes in: energy stability. It is a stage that is well above empty but still below charged; it’s like being eighty-five to ninety percent charged. The third option allows a Druk to still be energized and motivated, but in a more stable and controlled state.”

Hearing his friend’s explanation really helped to shed some needed light on the peculiar behaviors Tatsuya had observed about Shurai. Some of the stuff finally made some sense. Sure, it might not answer all of the questions he has right now, but it was a real step forward for him towards understanding dragons as actual beings. “So, are those desserts for you to charge up?” Tatsuya asked his friend.

“Something like that,” admitted Sasuke with a laugh.

Tatsuya and Sasuke said their goodbyes and left in opposite directions. Shurai followed closely behind Tatsuya with the same constantly bored and lethargic expression. While on their way back to the Owatatsumi residence, Tatsuya entered a store and bought a bag full of chips and other assorted snacks for Shurai. The dragon princess gratefully accepted the bag of food and immediately dug in. By the time they made it back home, Shurai had already completed the entire bag of chips and snacks. They entered the house and Tatsuya was happily greeted by the other girls.

“Darling! You’re back!” shouted Aika gleefully.

“Welcome back, My Love,” greeted Kanjomizu with a soft smile.

“You’re back, Tatsuya,” said Arashi with a wink.

“I’m home,” announced Tatsuya. “Now, girls, there’s—,” he began, but was immediately interrupted by Shurai’s rather inappropriate question.

The lightning dragon princess had spotted Salazar sitting near the dinner table and quickly approached the creature. “Can I eat it?” she asked, pointing hungrily at him with a longing expression.

Aika quickly rushed to her pet's rescue and picked him up. “No, you definitely can not!” she announced angrily. She quickly turned to Tatsuya and asked, “Just who is that girl?”

“My name is Shurai,” said the lightning dragon princess straightforwardly.

“She’s the Druk princess,” explained Tatsuya. He then proceeded to relay how his path had crossed with the Druk princess. The story of the thirty burger chow down and the forty-five curry stomach dump both horrified and fascinated the dragon princesses. He finished with revealing that the Druk princess had come to the human realm seeking the Dragonborn. “She said that it was to escape them,” he told the girls.

“I see,” said Aika with an understanding nod. “It must be that she’s being targeted by Ouroboros.”

“It won’t be long until the other tribes and their royal family are targeted too,” added Kanjomizu depressingly.

“The only thing we can do now is to take her in and protect her,” said Tatsuya. The other princesses nodded in agreement.

Dinner quickly arrived and Ingrid and the other maids had prepared yet another big dinner. Tatsuya explained Shurai’s situation to them, and they gladly set up a seat for her. Of course, knowing that she was a Druk princess, the maids prepared to make a few more extra servings of the dishes for the inevitable.

Everybody said their prayers and happily dug in. Aika engaged in her typical antics to try and increase her romantic relationship with Tatsuya, sharing her food with him and attempting to feed him herself. Kanjomizu watched the entire scene with sad, longing eyes; she so desperately wants her own chance to take the initiative and show her Love how much she has grown. Arashi simply indulged in the delicious food without a care in the world. On the other hand, Shurai wolfed down the dishes like a human vacuum cleaner. Her effortless eating caught the attention of her fellow diners, who watched with awe at how quick and easy she was gulping down her food.

“More, please,” announced Shurai with the same bored and lethargic expression. The maids quickly obliged and brought out the extra servings they had prepared. Once again, the Druk princess vacuumed all of the food into her mouth, leaving nothing but empty clean dishes behind. “Thank you for the food,” she announced to the table upon finishing all of her extra portions.

“Was it good?” Tatsuya asked her politely.

“Delicious,” Shurai answered back with a satisfied smile.

After dinner, the girls took Shurai into the magical hallway to get her situated with her own room. Meanwhile, Tatsuya sat in the living room by himself, exhausted and happy to finally have some time to himself. He checked his phone and noticed that he had received a message from Sasuke. It read: “We received a break in the case! Mr. Urushihara said that we will discuss it for tomorrow’s club meeting. See you all then!” This was the very first piece of good news he had received all day. He felt like a very big burden had been lifted off his mind. Though he hadn’t wanted it, he had always been knee deep in this crisis. And now, he needs to see this through. Just one step forward, no matter how small, is enough for him to get through this. However, there is a part of him that suspects that this crisis may just be the beginning of something greater. But he knows that he can’t worry about what comes later yet and has to just focus on the now. Everything else will be made known…eventually.


Sasuke made it to his apartment and unlocked the the door. He went inside and put his bags of sweets on the kitchen table. He showered and changed into his evening clothes. When he came back into the main room, he was surprised by the sound of crinkling wrappers. Sitting on his couch with a snack in his hand was a handsome young man with electric blonde hair and shocking amber eyes like an electric storm. The man was dressed in a bright yellow suit with a blue tie, and his skin was of a light yellow tan hue.

The first thing that had caught Sasuke’s eyes was the fact that man was eating one of his dorayaki. “M-M-My dorayaki!” he exclaimed woefully.

“Ah, this is delicious!” said the young man approvingly.

Sasuke glanced over at the man and immediately knew who he was. “Y-Y-You’re—,” he began in surprise.

“Nice to see you again, Samson,” said the young man.

“My name is Sasuke,” Sasuke told him.

“Ah yes, you’re human name is Nanami Sasuke,” corrected the young man.

“What are you doing here, Vajra?” inquired Sasuke suspiciously.

“To serve my mistress, of course,” replied Vajra matter-of-factly.

“But what are you doing here in my apartment?” rephrased Sasuke.

"Is this really how you treat old friends?" asked Vajra with a disproving shake of his head. Vajra finished the dorayaki in his hand and pulled out a piece of paper. “I found something that might interest you, Samson, excuse me, Sasuke.” He handed the paper over to Sasuke, who took it and quickly read over it. “Remember the favor you had asked of me before coming here to the human realm? Well, consider it finished.”

“Is this information reliable?” Sasuke asked his visitor.

“This information was gathered not less than a week ago,” Vajra replied. “But it is nonetheless reliable. At least now you have a lead on where to find him.”

“Big brother,” uttered Sasuke in a low and grave voice. He turned to Vajra and said, “Thank you.”

“Well, I’ve done my part,” said Vajra. He got off of the couch and walked over to the door.

“What can I do to repay you?” asked Sasuke.

“I’ll tell you when the time comes,” replied Vajra with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Hey!” called out Sasuke. He grabbed another bag of dorayaki and threw it at Vajra, who had turned around in answer to the call. Vajra received the bag and looked at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. “A gift for your troubles,” said Sasuke with a smile. Vajra gratefully accepted it and exited the apartment. After he was gone, Sasuke looked over the paper again. His face darkened into a grim expression. “I finally found you, big brother.”