Editing Leviathan:Volume 1 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 1===

The Juujouji home, where Orihime was born and raised, did not impose a ''curfew''.

However, that did not equate unbridled freedom.

Although there was no set curfew, conversely, Orihime was obliged to decide by her own will and judgment the appropriate hours for a fifteen-year-old girl to return home then adhere to that time.

But on this day, she was quite delayed, failing to return home until 11pm. This was due to the dragon encounter at the uncomfortable Witch Mansion that she had sneaked into.

The first thing Orihime did as soon as she got home was to make her way to her grandfather's room.

Orihime walked slowly along the corridor, making her way through this wooden building that had been built a hundred a forty years back.

Only locals with insider knowledge were aware that the Juujouji home was a samurai residence. This naturally included a long corridor overlooking the entire courtyard and needless to say, the grandfather's bedroom, also serving as a study, was also a Japanese-style room.

The paper sliding door was open. Looking from the corridor, Orihime could see her grandfather sitting on a legless chair, the kind used on tatami floors.

"Grandpa, I have returned."

"Uh-huh."

After the dragon encounter, Orihime had already phoned home beforehand to explain the situation.

Consequently, she only used a simple greeting to announce her return while her grandfather also nodded with a brief response. But unexpectedly, the grandfather said with a solemn expression, "Even if there was an emergency, don't you feel that you have returned a little late? Young ladies should take care to get home earlier, shouldn't they?"

Despite having passed the age of seventy, the grandfather's body was still highly robust.

This was apparently the result of his kendo training since youth. Furthermore, he used to work as a senior managing director at a certain automobile manufacturer and was a prominent figure hailing from a prestigious samurai family dating back to the Muromachi period. Old-fashioned in personality, he had a preference for traditional Japanese clothing.

Due to various reasons listed above, he always exerted an extraordinarily calm aura of pressure whenever he was feeling displeased.

However, Orihime answered simply without fear, "Don't be silly. Indeed, Minadzuki... Hazumi's 'serpent' did defeat the dragon, but it's not like I could immediately return."

"Hmm."

"Hazumi's body is very frail. I've heard that using her 'serpent' often leaves her confined to bed."

"But Orihime&mdash;"

"Feeling very worried, I went to check on her. Oh, she looks fairly energetic despite a bit of a fever, so I guess it's pretty much a relief."

"I-I see."

"And if dragons are attacking, the trains also get stopped, right? With that, of course I'll need to spend more time getting home than usual, won't I? After all, it's quite a long walk."

"In that case, you could have taken a taxi."

"During difficult times like these, things like taxis should be left for people who really need them. I'm healthier than most people and have the stamina. Walking a distance of four stations isn't really much. Besides, wouldn't taking a taxi be squandering money?"

"Your grandfather is willing to pay this bit of money no matter what!"

The grandfather had already lost his earlier composure.

Possibly because the household only consisted of the two of them, grandparent and grandchild, the grandfather would exhibit excessive protectiveness in certain areas. Despite the Spartan approach to education, he sometimes doted on Orihime very much.

"No. I can't be too wasteful of money I didn't earn myself."

"Ahem."

Probably feeling embarrassed, the grandfather cleared his throat and changed the subject.

"That organization has delivered a notice. The person presiding over the ritual is apparently ready and supposed to make a home visit in two days' time to explain various matters of importance. Make time for it."

"The ritual? Then I can finally become..."

"Yes, we have completed preparations fully on our side, so it's all up to you now."

The preordained occasion had apparently arrived. Orihime nodded vigorously.

"I understand. I will definitely prepare myself mentally&mdash;Oh, I already ate along the way because I was really hungry, so let's save tonight's dinner for breakfast tomorrow morning."

Dinner at the Juujouji family was prepared personally by the domestic helper every day.

Orihime seemed to want to finish as much of the food as possible to repay the domestic helper's labors. Come to think of it, how did the classmate she had encountered by chance handle dinner after what happened?

Leaving her grandfather's room, Orihime murmured to herself while walking alone in the corridor.

"I wasn't invited either."

After the battle, the Caucasian girl named Asya had complained "I'm hungry!" Hence, Orihime's classmate, Haruga Haruomi, had nodded and replied "Dinner together? Let's sneak into a place where we can prepare food." Then the two of them left.

Before leaving, all he said to Orihime was "See you at school."

"It felt like he was trying to avoid me... Am I thinking too much? I don't remember doing anything to make myself disliked. Rather, we haven't interacted much at all."

This classmate was quite "an eccentric" at first glance.

His aloof expression and tone of voice were especially memorable. Who on earth was he? Orihime's curiosity was piqued.



"So, Haruga-kun, could you tell me about yourself?"

"What the heck is this...?" muttered Hal in response to suddenly getting questioned by the classmate sitting next to him.

This was happening in the morning before homeroom, as soon as Hal entered the classroom and took his seat.

"Juujouji-san, did you happen to omit too much?"

"We're both in the same year group, so please feel free to address me by name directly. However, it feels impolite to use a boy's name directly, so I'll continue using the '-kun' honorific when addressing you."

"So, Juujouji, what do you want to know about me?"

Juujouji Orihime was evidently fearless in character.

Hal was certain she would make contact with him in some way today.

But to think it would be early in the morning, so suddenly... Curse this seating arrangement of neighbors. Also, Hal noticed something else&mdash;He had obediently addressed her by family name without honorifics just now.

Apparently, Orihime was quite adept at pulling others into her pace.

"First of all, I would be quite pleased if you could introduce yourself a bit, Haruga-kun."

"Japanese nationality, male, currently living in the Sumida ward. Title on my ID reads high school student. Is that enough?"

"What interests me are details from your profile that were omitted just now, Haruga-kun."

"Despite how I may look, I'm actually quite cautious in handling personal information. I'm fine with disclosing my height and weight to you, but give me a break if you want my three sizes."

"Relax, I'm not interested in that. Haruga-kun, I want to know about the knowledge you've acquired outside of school, as well as about what happened over there yesterday. However&mdash;"

Hal jumped in fright, because Orihime suddenly drew her face near.

Leaning forward swiftly, she turned her dignified and beautiful face towards him, looking him straight in the eye.

Hal was overcome with certainty. His compatibility with this girl was likely to be poor.

Truly a tricky case&mdash;To a boy like Haruga Haruomi who willingly chose to step into darkness, a girl like her, whose body and mind were composed wholly from elements of light, was a bit too dazzling to behold.

Rather, wouldn't it be better to say that just by having her beside him, he was unable to calm his mind? Or perhaps, he involuntarily wanted to avoid her?

"Are you trying to avoid me by any chance, Haruga-kun?"

Also, she was definitely not slow on the uptake. Extraordinarily sharp.

"Did I offend you slightly yesterday? If that is the case, I apologize. I am quite impetuous, which is why I unintentionally talked to others in that manner."

This girl was probably capable of being considerate of people around her. Last night, she even attempted to rescue Hal even in the face of danger.

Increasingly dazzling, increasingly troublesome. Hal sighed.

"Suddenly imposing these prying questions nonstop would be quite impolite. Today, I am just informing you of my interest in you. Let's chat again another time."

"Thank you very much for that..."

While giving a sloppy answer, Hal realized something.

A few classmates were staring in their direction with eyes of surprise.

A girl sitting ahead to the right, Mutou-san, and Funaki-san in the seat in front of her.

The two girls had apparently overheard Hal and Orihime's exchange by chance.

Orihime had engaged Hal in conversation with her usual tone of voice and attitude of cheerfulness. Sitting nearby, it was only natural for those girls to overhear.

Unconcerned, Hal did not feel compelled to do anything in particular about it.

Nevertheless, he would come to deeply regret his oversight at the time...



On this day, Hal found lessons to feel longer than usual.

This was probably due to his neighbor, Orihime, staring at him from time to time. After noticing her gaze, Hal could not calm his mind no matter what, leaving him no choice but to pretend not to notice.

Hal never expected such a day to arrive when he would become the target of attention from a member of the opposite sex...

Despite the strangely emotional response, Hal still waited single-mindedly for all lessons to end.

After school, Hal took care to avoid eye contact with his neighbor while hurrying to leave the classroom.

Quickly rushing off to the station, he then took the New Town Loop Line to Togashikomagata.

After a ten minute walk from the station and entering the Mirokudou located on the fourth floor of a multi-tenant building, Hal began to grumble:

"What rotten luck. Playing a student's role seriously, my foot. Humans are really not cut out to do things they're not used to doing."

The only ones present in the used bookstore, rarely frequented by customers, were Hal's acquaintances.

Namely, the store manager and SAURU staff, young Mr. Kenjou, as well as Hal's childhood friend, Asya.

"What's the matter, Haruomi? You don't look like you feel well."

"Of course I don't feel well. I originally intended to keep playing my part as the ordinary boy who doesn't make an impression for a while longer before withdrawing from school at an opportune moment, but now I've attracted weird curiosity from others..." replied Hal, who then scratched his head rudely.

"Despite your dignified, elegant and dreamy appearance, Asya, you're like a ravenous wild beast at your core and ultimately, I get along best with you after all. Things are so easy when I don't need to respond with full effort."

"Putting aside the issue of getting along, I am personally quite appalled by your malicious slandering!"

"Anyway, let's move on. Kenjou-san, I must have contracted a mental disorder, right? Look, there were inexplicable symptoms of a panic attack earlier. A performance of Dr. Freud's nonsensical drama must surely be playing in the depths of my mind."

During the dragon encounter, Hal had experienced full-body paralysis and hallucinations.

Although Asya had accompanied him to the hospital afterwards for a medical check, all tests came back with "normal" as the result, including psychiatric ones.

Even so, Hal still insisted strongly he had developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

This was partly due to wishful thinking. Otherwise, it would be difficult for him to accept that sudden and unnatural ataxia.

"As a result, I want to leave Tokyo temporarily and take this opportunity to undergo therapy. Could you help me explain to Hiiragi-san?"

"Well, that's certainly sudden. Don't you need to help Miss Asya?"

"That's a very good point. Come on, you should have sought my opinion too, at least."

Following up on what Kenjou mentioned, Asya pouted, looking very displeased.

She had presumably seen through Hal's intentions of "using this as an excuse to escape Tokyo."

"Oh dear, think about this. It'd be a pain if these symptoms interfered with work, not to mention massive trouble at school. That's why I think it'd be a good idea if I could go somewhere far away to relax for a while."

"Please act a little more Japanese. You should be exhibiting the spirit of hard work even more at times like these."

"Well, personally, I believe that an escapist solution like spending four years or so at a tropical island is quite suitable for young people."

Just as the two youngsters were starting to argue, Kenjou interrupted in a nonchalant tone of voice, "Excuse me, but a job is already arranged. Please give up on your plans to escape Tokyo for now."

"A job, you say... Now that's quite sudden," murmured Asya in response to the sudden notification.

"Actually, we were hired quite some time ago to help conduct a ritual. However, the matter was delayed repeatedly because our side was unable to locate a Grave Good for the covenant ritual. The client seems to be both rich and well-connected. During the call yesterday, they said they have secured the artifact already. Hence, it should be smooth sailing from this point onwards."

The two new members never expected this type of job to fall upon them in the first place.

One of the two, Hal, slumped his shoulders. On the other hand, Asya immediately smiled radiantly.

"Fufu, surely you can't waste a rare chance to make money? Let's shelve the matter of relocation until this job is over. Does that work, Haruomi?"

"It'll be a pain if cancelling a job at the last moment tarnished my reputation. Naturally, moving house will have to wait."

Next to the elated Asya, Hal muttered, "The ritual candidate... I don't suppose her family name is something fabulous like Juujouji, is it?"

"Bingo. I never knew you were that knowledgeable about matters on our end."

Hearing Kenjou's impressed response, Hal shrugged.

Rather than knowledgeable, he had merely predicted a probable development.

Recalling the profile of Juujouji's dazzling face, Hal could not help but feel an urge to sigh towards the heavens.