Editing Leviathan:Volume 2 Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 5===

"In the end, the enemy has been quiet all the way to the fourth day of the deadline period? That's quite rule-abiding for a dragon."

"But then again, it's also weird to call a dragon honest in personality."

Hiiragi Yukari shrugged after her assistant, Kenjou, offered his opinion.

Racing along the Tokyo New Town Expressway&mdash;commonly called the New Expressway&mdash;was a classy domestic car with Kenjou as the driver and Yukari sitting alone in the back seat.

It was late at night. In one more hour, the date was going to change.

"Or does the dragon have ulterior motives?"

"There's probably no need to be concerned about that. After all, there's nothing we could do apart from slight adjustments in combat forces to support Asya-san's group."

"Your description is definitely over the top, but you're very right."

Listening to Yukari's overly perfunctory comment, Kenjou smiled wryly while driving.

"With that, Miss Shirasaka will be excluded from actual combat forces. Now that's really painful. If I recall correctly, she's still on standby at the MPD, right?"

"No. She went with Haruomi-kun this morning to Old Tokyo. To search for Orihime-san."

"Is her 'serpent' in such poor condition that you permitted her to leave?"

"If Minadzuki is forced to fight at full strength for three minutes, her body will break down even faster... That is what Istanbul headquarters concluded. By the way, Rushalka's time limit for activity is fifteen minutes."

"And Miss Orihime's survival is unlikely... Should we prepare a white flag first?"

"Dragonkind surely won't know what that means. The only remaining hope is to gather helpers from abroad by sundown tomorrow."

"Every domestic group is refusing to heed the summons. It's getting increasingly harder to get by in this world."

Continuing a conversation that was neither grumbling nor chatting, they awaited the arrival of the next day.


Then the night deepened. It was midnight just before the date changed.

Asya was at her assigned hotel room with arms crossed.

Despite being on standby at the MPD, she was a certified master-class witch. Even under such circumstances, she was still guaranteed VIP treatment. Hence, a room was arranged for her at a nearby luxury hotel instead of having her spend the night at MPD headquarters.

However, Asya did not sleep. She only sat in front of the table without moving an inch.

On the table was a cellphone. Asya had been staring at it for a good long while.

"Anyway, I have to score a hit on that dragon first... That's my job&mdash;"

She had already received a call from her childhood friend.

For the sake of the decisive battle tomorrow, Asya was currently focusing her mind so as to bring out her inborn aggression completely. Singlemindedly, she wished to make herself more ferocious and greedy.


Time elapsed again. The date changed. Late night passed away, second by second, minute by minute.

Then just as the rosy glow of dawn started to color the eastern sky...

"It's almost time..."

Driving the station wagon, Hal was moving along Koushuu Route in the direction of Sasatsuka.

Sitting in the back seat were Orihime and Hazumi. Both girls were wearing their school uniforms, predominantly white, their expressions tense from nervousness.

Hinokagutsuchi's absence was nothing uncommon, so Hal did not let that worry him.

Soon after, Hal's group arrived at Shinjuku Fukutoshin.

Old Tokyo's city hall could be seen up ahead. Standing 243m tall, the massive U-shaped forty-eight-story building was highly conspicuous even amidst the forest of high-rise buildings in Fukutoshin.

Was it going to be Pavel Galad? Or Hal and his friends?

This historical landmark could very well end up as a tombstone for one of the two sides.

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