The little girl nodded vigorously.
"Yes, Tohru's scent is really strong here."
Seeing her so certain, Michiru bit her lip, braced herself to interrupt someone's rest, and pressed the doorbell with her index finger.
"Dingdong!"
Just as it rang
Click!
The door opened at once.
Kanna's eyes lit up with delight.
"Tohru!"
Hyodo Michiru's eyes also went wide. Not with delight, but with shock.
"ReiRei Aokun?!"
Rei Ao, standing next to Tohru, was similarly surprised to see her and Kanna show up together. But he recovered quickly, smiling as he invited them, "How about coming inside for some tea?"
A short while later
"Tohru, I finally found you!"
In the spacious living room, there were four people now. Kanna's little body pounced on Tohru, nuzzling happily. Meanwhile, Michiru, holding a cup of tea, still hadn't fully processed the situation.
Rei Ao asked directly, "Michiru, how'd you come across Kanna?"
"I I ran into Kanna by chance before," Michiru answered softly, then asked curiously, "Rei Aokun, you know Kanna's identity?"
"She's a dragon. Tohru is, too. She mentioned earlier that Kanna's her friend."
"No wonder you aren't surprised" Michiru breathed out. "When I first learned Kanna was a dragon, it really startled me."
Kanna's ears twitched. She jumped down from the sofa and came over to Michiru, taking her hand.
"Michiru, I'm sorry."
"Haha, it's fine. I was just surprised at first," Michiru said, no way she'd hold a grudge against such an adorable child. "I just never thought Kanna's friend would be at Rei Aokun's place."
Itreally was fate.
At the mention of Tohru, Kanna's expression turned serious. She pointed a small finger at Rei Ao, speaking in her childish voice, "I won't let you take Tohru away."
"Oh?"
Such a cute challenge stirred Rei Ao's playful side. The smile on his lips seemed normal, but to Kanna it was downright wicked.
"So, Kanna, how do you plan to do that?"
"Kanna will defeat you."
With that, Kanna charged straight at him.
"Huhuhu."
Her little fists were, after all, a dragon's fistsone punch would normally create a heavy sonic boom. However:
One large hand landed on her head, holding her in place. Kanna's flailing punches couldn't even touch the hem of Rei Ao's clothes.
"Rrgh, rgh!"
The scene was so endearing that Michiru couldn't stifle her laughter.
~~~
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Chapter 364: I'm Ready!
"Ugh"
Kanna puffed out her cheeks in a wronged pout.
Perhaps Rei Ao felt a moment of pity, loosening the hand that was pinning her. Without its restraint, Kanna lunged straight into Rei Ao's chest. She made contact!
Immediately, she balled her tiny fists and began pounding on his chest.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
A series of soft, adorably muffled sounds rang out. On Rei Ao's body, it felt no more than a light tickle.
Seeing this, Tohru asked in surprise, "Kanna, how'd you get this hungry?"
"Hungry?"
Michiru didn't understand. "But Kanna ate electricity and drank milk today."
Tohru shook her head at that.
"No, there's no way milk could satisfy a dragon's hunger. To truly fill Kanna up, you'd need electricity in the thousands or tens of thousands of kilowatt-hours."
"Huh?!"
Michiru stared in wide-eyed astonishment.
"Kanna, why didn't you tell me about this?"
She'd thought she could manage to take care of Kanna.
"Uuh"
Kanna stopped her little punches, not daring to meet Michiru's eyes.
"My guess is that Kanna didn't want you to worry, Michiruso she kept it to herself," Rei Ao explained gently, stroking Kanna's head. At the same time, he held out his left hand near her mouth.
Both Michiru and Kanna saw a blue glowing sphere, about the size of a large marble, coalesce in his palm.
"!!!"
Kanna's eyes lit up as though she'd seen something delicious, her mouth almost watering.
"Go on, eat it. This much should keep you satisfied for a good while," Rei Ao said of the marblea small cluster of condensed magic energy. As of late, Tohru's eager "exercise" with him was also a way of recharging. Now, feeding a few dragons was easy business for him.
"Gulp"
Despite how eagerly her eyes sparkled, Kanna still hesitated and refrained from taking a bite. Instead, she glanced back at Tohru. Tohru couldn't help putting a hand to her forehead.
"Well, if Rei Ao's letting you eat it, go ahead."
"AahCHOMP!!!"
With Tohru's permission, Kanna wasted no time biting it in one go. At once, her face took on a look of deep contentment.
"Hey!"
She even burped on the spot.
"So full."
Kanna went entirely limp in Rei Ao's arms, rubbing her stuffed belly and unwilling to move.
"???"
Michiru had a huge question mark hovering over her head.
"ReiRei Ao-kun, you"
She completely failed to understand how Rei Ao had just fed Kanna.
"I simply gathered some magic at will to replenish the magic Kanna was lacking," he explained, not minding at all.
"A-at will"
That phrase immediately set off alarm bells in her head, and her face changed drastically.
"Rei Ao-kun, you'renot an ordinary human, are you?!"
Before Rei Ao could answer, Kanna's body lit up with a golden glow. The next moment, the light formed a shape both Tohru and Rei Ao recognized at once.
"Lucoa!"
Tohru blurted the name. Indeed, the luminous figure that took shape was Lucoa, famed for her "world-class body." She squinted contentedly, scanning Tohru and Rei Ao, lips curving upward.
"Kanna found you two after all."
Rei Ao perceived what was going on with a single look.
"So that's how Kanna was able to cross overbecause you deliberately let her pass through the dimensional barrier?"
"Exactly."
Lucoa said cheerfully, "I left a small piece of myself on Kanna so I could have a brief conversation with you."
"Lucoa, why do something like that? What did you hope to gain by sending Kanna over here?"
Kanna was still just a hatchling. If she hadn't met Rei Ao, she might not have gotten enough to eat. Tohru really couldn't understand why Lucoa sent her.
Lucoa explained, "Actually, Kanna was banished by the dragons for mischief."
"Huh?"
"They banished Kanna just for mischief? Those dragons must have no sense of humor!" Tohru found it hard to believe.
"Eh, it's dragon business, not up to me. The dragons aren't exactly a unified group. Many dragons are extremely proudif not outright arrogant."
Lucoa sighed. "Once Kanna was banished, she followed Tohru's scent and somehow crossed the dimensional barrier. I figured that with you, Tohru, and Rei Ao in the human world, you'd be able to look after her. So I let her through."
She looked at Kanna kindly. "Kanna, how are you doing over there?"
Kanna patted her tummy blissfully. "So full."
"Haha, it seems you really can take good care of Kanna. I'll leave her to you. The magic I left behind is about to be used up. We'll meet again in the future."
Snap!
With that, the shining figure vanished. Lucoa's image faded away.
"Sigh, the dragons and Lucoa. They always have a way of causing trouble."
The dragons' actions had clearly annoyed Tohru. She turned to Rei Ao. "Rei Ao, what now?"
She wanted to keep Kanna, but she was leaving the final decision to him.
"It's just a little dragonfeeding her is no big deal."
As he spoke, Rei Ao tapped a finger against Kanna's round cheek, then asked, "Kanna, do you want to stay here?"
" "
Kanna blinked, hopped down from his lap, and trotted over to the still-dumbstruck Michiru, grabbing her hand.
"Michiru stays too."
"Eh?"
Michiru, who was already shaken by everything that had transpired, stared blankly. She had no idea what Kanna's sudden comment meant.
"Seems you're pretty attached to Michiru, Kanna," said Rei Ao, stroking his chin in thought. At last, he had an idea.
"Well then, if Michiru's okay with it, you can stay at her placebut any time you feel hungry or want to visit, just come here and I can let you have some magic."
"Alright!"
Kanna's eyes glowed. One person was the kindhearted soul who'd taken her in the first place; the other was her good friend Tohru, plus this man who gave her tasty magic. She didn't want to give up either. Rei Ao's suggestion fulfilled all of Kanna's wishes at once.
"Michiru, what do you think?"
It was all well and good that Kanna was pleased, but Rei Ao knew that the final decision rested with Michiru.
" "
Michiru still hadn't calmed down inside. Her expression looked complicated.
"Rei Ao-kun, before we go any further, could you explain what's really going onand who exactly you are?"
By this point, she'd have to be a fool not to see that Rei Ao was anything but normal.
"Since you've already gotten involved with these things, I can tell you what I am," Rei Ao replied. Still, he didn't reveal anything outright. Instead, he asked again, "Are you ready to face a world beyond ordinary life?"
" "
Yes. When she first encountered Kanna the little dragon, her world had already shifted beyond normalcy. Holding Kanna's hand, Michiru took a deep breath and answered resolutely, "I'm ready!"
Some voice inside told her that if she missed this opportunity, she'd regret it for the rest of her life.
~~~
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Chapter 365: Shock Michiru, and The Clumsy Hero
""
Hyodo Michiru felt a bit dizzy. That was because Rei Ao had told her so many things that shook her worldview.
Human world, the Three Realms, other worlds, angels, demons all of it had once been just material for amusing stories in her eyes. But now, from Rei Ao's mouth, they were realities that existed.
Fortunately, having already accepted Kanna as a dragon, her ability to handle such revelations had quietly improved. In just a short while, she managed to digest these new facts.
Just then
Click!
A door in the secondary bedroom suddenly opened.
"Haaah~"
An utterly sleepy Emilia, wearing a loose T-shirt and short shorts, trudged out in slippers. She was so groggy her eyes were barely open. Staggering, she headed for the bathroom.
She opened the door. Entered. Lifted the toilet lid. Slid down her little shorts. Sat on the toilet.
"Swoooosh"
All the while halfasleep, she never noticed the group's wideeyed stares.
"???"
Michiru, practically holding her breath, gawked with an open mouth.
"What is this?"
"Sigh, looks like she still isn't used to the habit of shutting the door behind her," Rei Ao said, pressing a palm to his forehead. He called a reminder, "Hey, Emilia, the door's wide open."
"Swoooosh!"
The sound of water abruptly stopped. Emilia froze in place the moment she heard his voice.
Her neck turned with mechanical stiffnesseyes meeting the stares of several onlookers.
"!!!"
Her face went pale, then instantly flushed beet red.
"Eeeek!!!"
Emilia shrieked, then fumbled around shutting the door.
Bang! The water sound resumedshe evidently couldn't hold it any longer.
Rei Ao gave a shrug and explained to Michiru, "That's Emilia."
"She's a Hero from another world called the Holy Cross Continent. She has nowhere to go, so she's temporarily staying here."
"H-Hero?"
Michiru's mouth twitched slightly. Never mind that this "hero" seemed pretty absentmindedshe actually forgot to close the door for that?!
Alsowhy was Rei Ao so calmly indifferent about it?!
"Rei Aokunjust who are you?"
If everything Rei Ao said was true, then he had an astonishing amount of knowledge and a deeply mysterious identity.
"Me? You can think of me as an Awakened One. The Three Realms plan to set me up as the Protector of the Human World."
Rei Ao said it in such a light tone.
At one side, Tohru proudly raised her head high, chest out.
"Hmph, my darling is the strongest person in this world, stronger than any dragon!"
"Oh oh, no wonder Tohru's mating with him," Kanna said, blinking her large eyes and looking as if she'd just realized something.
When Kanna said Rei Ao was even stronger than a dragon, Michiru was already astonished. But as soon as Kanna mentioned "mating," Michiru was stupefied.
"M-Mat Mma?"
Her stunned gaze flicked back and forth between Tohru and Rei Ao, as though she'd heard something unimaginable.
Tohru didn't mind, tilting her chin up. "Of course, it's not just because Rei Ao's strong."
She wasn't one to submit to a strong being so casually; she had her pride as a dragon.
"Actually, it's because I was gravely wounded in battle with a race of gods. I fled into this world, almost died, and Rei Ao saved me and took me in."
"That's why he's the one I love more than anything!"
As she spoke, Tohru hugged Rei Ao's arm, nuzzling affectionately against him.
"Swoooosh"
From the bathroom, the sound of water went from a raging flow to a trickle, then slowly stopped, much like the feeling in Michiru's heart, which had just turned cold when she heard this news. It was like suddenly learning the person she secretly liked already had a partnera chill like total heartbreak.
"Swoooosh!"
But the water started again, this time from the faucet. Moments later
Whoosh!
The bathroom door was yanked open. Emilia shot past in a blur, racing back into her bedroom.
Bang!
She slammed the door hard enough to shake the frame.
"Emilia, no matter how embarrassed you are, go easy shutting doors. You can't afford repairs if something breaks," Rei Ao said with a note of sympathy, understanding her current mortification but still reminding her.
"Got it!"
From inside the second bedroom came Emilia's annoyed reply. And after answering, she still had to add one more jab:
"Lecher!"
"Tch"
Rei Ao smacked his tongue in annoyance. "It's all her own clueless fault, and she's blaming me?"
"Michiru, you were right here, so you can back me up, yes?" He joked, as if not noticing the dark cloud in Michiru's eyes.
Right now, it was best to pretend not to notice, to wait for her to calm down and eventually work out their relationship in a measured way.
"Mm"
Michiru nodded stiffly, her expression strained.
Rei Ao glanced at the time outside.
"It's late. I'll send you two home."
"You've learned quite a bit of stuff you've never seen before, so I'm sure your mind must be spinning. Get some rest and process it."
"Me and Kanna can just head back ourselves," Michiru said, rising to take Kanna's hand, preparing to leave.
