Editing Leviathan:Volume 7 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 5===

When Hal regained consciousness, the first to appear in his mind was a question.

(...Who are these people?)

He was lying face up on the ground with three boys and girls next to him.

If this were a bedroom, they would be standing next to the pillow, but this was a soft lawn. Hal felt a sharp pain in his chest&mdash;His heart.

He seemed to remember getting stabbed by a sword there...

A bit lost, Hal decided to sit up first.

"Thank goodness! Haruga-kun woke up~!"

"But it looks like he's not fully conscious yet. He's spacing out, there's no light in his eyes."

The trio seemed to be worrying about him.

Two girls and a boy.

The two girls were making a lot of noise. One seemed to be a lively short-haired girl while the other was short and wearing her hair in twintails. They both looked like they knew Hal.

The third person, the boy, had his head bowed, looking at Hal silently.

He was wearing a summer knit hat. With a slender physique, his entire being oozed style. Few of Hal's acquaintances cultivated this kind of image.

The trio seemed to be high school students. Although their uniforms had differences due to male and female styles, they belonged to the same school.

''Okay, who the heck are these people?'' Hal was very perplexed.

(They know my name, so they're acquaintances after all, right?)

Besides, why was he lying on a lawn?

This park looked quite large. ''What had I been just before losing consciousness?'' He had faint memories of falling from the sky and his right hand grabbing something...

Hal clenched his right hand into a fist subconsciously then everything came to him.

He had grabbed something soft and elastic at the time&mdash;Recalling that instant, he remembered the name of the classmates in front of him.

"Uh. Mutou-san and... Funaki-san. Why are you here?"

"Wow&mdash;Haruga-kun, you finally went back to normal."

"So true. You weren't reacting at all just now. I was worried, wondering if we should send you to the hospital~"

Mutou-san grinned and Funaki-san sighed in relief.

"The prez told us 'I am a bit worried the red dragon might lose' so we came to check things out. But man, the prez is amazing. She predicted 'you might run into Haruga' and she was right."

"The prez&mdash;Oh, President M?"

"Of course."

The one referred to as the prez by Hal and Mutou-san was the eccentric President M of the UFO Research Club.

Hal managed to remember President M too. However, he glanced at the silent handsome guy. This guy... Who was he? No idea at all.

Was this their first encounter, or had Hal rudely forgotten him?

"Oh right, Haruga-kun, you've never met him. He's a member of the UFO Research Club too. This is Sakuraba-senpai. I think I've mentioned him to you before, right?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it," said Mutou-san.

Sakuraba-senpai&mdash;Hal had definitely heard this name before.

Priding upon his superior investigation abilities, he spent all his time chasing scoops outside of school.

Since he seldom visited the clubroom, Hal had never seen him before. They met at last today...

However, Sakuraba-senpai remained quiet the whole time. Even after Mutou-san introduced him to Hal, he did not say a single word.

Simply looking at Hal's face, he nodded silently in acknowledgement.

"Maybe he doesn't come around the clubroom because he's shy and doesn't like to talk?"

"Correct. But it was thanks to Senpai that we were able to find you. When the silver dragon&mdash;the one transformed from that handsome guy&mdash;and the red dragon flew into New Town, he did not evacuate. Instead, he was taking photos from a rooftop in Kinshichō."

Mutou-san made thumbs-up towards Sakuraba-senpai.

"When the fight between the two dragons was won by the silver one and the red one fell here&mdash;Kiyosumi Park&mdash;he caught it on his camera too. Also when the prez ordered all of us to find the red dragon, Sakuraba-senpai told us the red one fell here as soon as we called him."

"Wow..."

Sure enough, his ability to gather information was far beyond a student's.

In addition, Mutou-san told Hal that she and Funaki-san had biked over from Ryougoku where the school was located.

A distance of roughly two train stations, but traffic over road and rail was restricted during dragon strikes. Apart from aircraft, bicycles were the most efficient means of locomotion in Tokyou currently.

"Say, what was the situation when you found me?"

"Well... Sakuraba-senpai said 'I saw the red dragon fall in this park!' so we followed his testimony and entered to check things out. Then we found you lying next to the unconscious dragon."

"...But the red dragon isn't next to me anymore."

"It suddenly vanished before you woke up. That's called 'dematerializing,' right?" Still learning magic terms, Mutou-san explained to him.

Hal focused his mind and examined the state of his heart&mdash;The heartmetal. It had been aching ever since he woke up.

(The current output of magical power... Probably about 30% of the usual.)

However, the damage was lighter than imagined. How incredible.

His heartmetal, i.e. heart, had been pierced by a deep stab of the dragonslaying sword. It would not have been surprising if the Crimson Queen had perished together with Haruga Haruomi's soul that had merged with her.

However, both of them had survived. Since his heartmetal was fine, he should be able to resummon the queen.

(It's Asya and Juujouji who saved me...)

For some reason, Hal was deeply convinced of this. Although just for an instant, Hal had connected his hazy consciousness with the minds of the witches who had disappeared from Earth.

After that, he should have entrusted the power of the runes to the witches who seemed to be in a crisis of their own.

This part of his memories was quite vague, but there was something he remembered clearly&mdash;

The sensations from his right hand came in two categories. The really small belonged to Asya while the overflowingly abundant was Orihime's.

Having personally experienced how they felt to his touch, his memory could not possibly be mistaken.

For some reason, contact with the girls had decreased the synchronization between Hal's soul and the queen.

That was probably the reason. When the wound was inflicted on the queen's chest, only 30 or 40% was reflected onto Hal. As a result, he survived luckily.

Putting aside for now why "the sensation of breasts" would have this kind of effect.

Hal raised another question. "The silver dragon didn't come to deliver a final blow?"

"Nope. Because it looks like he's busy. Over there."

Mutou-san pointed at the sky. In the direction indicated, there was an aerial battle in progress.

Wielding the dragonslaying sword, the silver dragon Pavel Galad was chasing a white dragon&mdash;it was the dragon king's gallant form that had not made an appearance for a very long time.

Princess Yukikaze's dragon form was much more slender than the Crimson Queen's.

Successor to the Arrow that formed a pair with the Rune of the Bow in Hal's possession, she turned her white body into a single dragonslaying arrow. Pavel Galad flew as fast as he could, trying to attack the fearsome Princess Yukikaze, but&mdash;

Unable to catch her. Unable to catch her. Unable to catch her.

The princess was not only fast but her flight trajectory was also very complicated.

Zig zags, sudden turns, spiral flight. Pavel Galad was no slouch in the speed department, but he picked the wrong opponent.

"He's playing such an intense game of tag, of course he doesn't have the time to come to me..."

It looked like Princess Yukikaze saved his life.

Phew. Hal sighed. Time for a change of pace. Right now, he had to drive the happily rampaging dragons out of Tokyo.

Next, Hal was inspired to play a little trick that even he found "a bit underhanded."

"Let's try it, I guess...?"

The ones who rescued him, Mutou-san, Funaki-san, and Sakuraba-san were looking worriedly at Hal, who did not seem quite alright. Despite a whole pile of mysteries, the trio did not try to pry and question him. Surely, it must be because they knew it was currently an emergency situation.

Normally speaking, he should hurry and tell them to evacuate. However, Hal made the following suggestion intead, "Hey everyone. If it's okay with you guys, I've got a favor to ask."

Meanwhile, he wondered to himself. ''Perhaps President M predicted even this as well?''


After parting ways with his school mates, Hal was left alone.

Walking steadily along the Kiyosu Bridge, he was making his way to the front lines where Pavel Galad and Princess Yukikaze were fighting.

Currently, an emergency evacuation alert had been issued in New Town.

A great number&mdash;countless cars were stopped on the streets.

Apart from designated emergency vehicles, all road traffic was prohibited during the alert. Drivers immediately abandoned their cars and checked on their cellphones for the nearest shelter.

Places such as stadiums, parks, river banks, or schools with vast sports grounds were used as shelters.

The residents in this neighborhood seemed to have all evacuated. Hal was the only person walking on the road, surrounded by silence.

Along the way, Hal went "Huh...?"

How odd. Noticing something felt off about himself, he paused in his steps.

Rather than physical discomfort, it was a matter of the mind. Those fellow members of the UFO Research Club whom he had been talking to earlier&mdash;Those three.

Hal had forgotten their faces and names again.

Apart from that, his memories of the sixteen years that he had lived as Haruga Haruomi were fuzzy.

Come to think of it, what am I? A human? A high school student? A treasure hunter? A Tyrannos who had inherited dragonslaying runes?

No way&mdash;Hal realized a certain possibility.

Could it be that his transformation into a dragon had progressed all at once because there was no one to chat with him?

All kinds of memories had gone fuzzy, but there was one thing he remembered very clearly.

The battle with Pavel Galad. The battle he had experienced only hours earlier. Towards the end, he had merged with the Crimson Queen to clash head on with the silver dragon...

The enemy was a hot-blooded Tyrannos. Feeling fervor and fighting spirit from up close, Hal had fought intensely with him.

He recalled every second vividly in his mind.

The enemy used the dragonslaying sword to attack him and he defended with imperishable protection. However, the impact and magical power unleashed by the blade was transmitted mercilessly to Hal&mdash;no, the queen&mdash;shaking his skeleton and internal organs...

What remembered these details was not Hal's brain but his heart, i.e. heartmetal, probably.

The most important organ of a dragon told him that ''this'' was what dragonkind considered supreme joy and pleasure.

"S-Sure, whatever... I don't want to experience that ever again..."

His conscious fading, Hal denied with all his might.

However, these thoughts did not reach his heart, i.e. heartmetal. The thoughts of ××××ga ××××omi held very little power to command now. After all, he could not even remember his own name exactly, much less the events of his life...

"Hey brat, the situation is bad here."

He heard someone's bored voice by his ear.

However, Hal could not even tell who was speaking. Most likely someone who knew ××××ga ×××××××...

"Oh."

By the time he noticed, his stride had lengthened.

Every step would take him a great distance forward. His footsteps also sounded inexplicably heavy. Hal stomped the ground with a "thud!", shaking the road surface and even flattening the railing.

Before he knew it, his eye level had risen in height.

While walking, he could gaze down on traffic lights and utility poles...

He noticed that his leg length, body weight, height&mdash;everything had increased to outrageous levels. Right now, he was probably standing around twenty meters tall.

A long, thick tail seemed to be extending from his coccyx...

He looked at his hand. It was covered with crimson dragon scales.

His arms, his chest, his torso, below the waist, everything was a dragon's.

"Oh..."

Thud. Thud. Thud. With heavy footsteps, Hal marched on forward.

The urban scenery around the Kiyosu Bridge followed a "trendy metropolitan" style, but to a dragon's eyes, it was nothing more than paper props, instantly wreckable with a gentle poke...

In fact, it definitely would be wrecked. Because right now, his was a dragon king's body.

However, his legs felt harder and harder to move.

"My condition isn't too good, I guess?"

His chest&mdash;the heartmetal&mdash;was hurting. The wound had clearly closed up&mdash;Hal did not know if someone performed first aid on him&mdash;but it seemed to be rupturing now.

The dragonslaying sword had forcefully pierced this energy source of a dragon's body.

Forget about a puny human, in his current state, there was no way he could move a dragon king's body.

"I suppose I'll... rest for a bit."

Pavel Galad and Princess Yukikaze were engaged in a fierce battle somewhere in the sky over New Town.

Fortunately, it was not nearby. He should be able to find a quiet place to lie down and let his heartmetal rest. But time was running out.

"If I take too long, the princess might dismember Galad..."

Purely in terms of power as a dragon, Pavel Galad was no match for Princess Yukikaze at all. No matter what, the innocent-looking beautiful maiden was a dragon king. That being said, the silver dragon had no choice. Hal could not imagine him gracefully admitting defeat either.

"This seems like a nice spot."

There was a middle school next to the Kiyosu Bridge. Hal entered the school premises.

There were no people inside. They had probably evacuated. Passing through the courtyard that happened to be in the shade, he curled next to the school building.

He entered a coiled up sleeping posture.

Using ×××××× ××××omi's knowledge, he thought to himself, ''if this were a J. R. R. Tolkien novel, I would be using an underground dwarven treasure vault beneath a mountain as my bed...


Thus, he nodded off for now. Not deep slumber, but just a nap.

When the crimson dragon smelled humans&mdash;and female at that&mdash;he shifted his body slightly. Rather than one, three females were approaching. Footsteps were heard too.

Grrrrrrrr... hhhhhh.

He growled as though talking in his sleep. His eyes remained tightly shut. Neither did his posture change.

''I just want to sleep. What are these people doing here?''

''Are they trying to mess with me? If that's the case&mdash;''

The napping dragon snickered. How should he deal with these rude people? Breathe fire on them? Swat them away with his tail?

Or should he give them riddles to solve, devouring them if they failed to give the right answer?

''Everything depends on how I, the dragon, am feeling''.

Waiting for the human visitors, the dragon whose former identity was ×××××× ××××××× napped while entertaining himself with fantasies of their demise... 

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