Editing Rental Magica Volume 1: Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 1===

'''Well then, let us begin a story of magic.'''

<br><br>

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

Iba Itsuki screamed, almost fainting.

Falling on his bottom in an alleyway late at night, the pain coursed through him. A plastic bucket next to him tipped over, splashing the pants of his school uniform with kitchen waste.

"Ah... ah... ah... ah..."

However, completely ignoring that, Itsuki looked up with a dazed expression, pressing the eye patch over his right eye against his face.

He was a boy who looked a little younger than his actual age.

As if to display his personality, his hair was short and wasn't dyed or gelled, and even though it was a holiday, he wore his school uniform. The one exception to his bland appearance was the eye patch covering his right eye like a pirate; though for a young boy to wear it, it came off looking quite ridiculous.

Now, this boy had a serious reason for pressing on his eye patch.

With his left eye, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

If someone else had looked around, they wouldn't have seen anything to be afraid of. In that dark alleyway, they wouldn't have seen the shadow of anything other than the young boy.

If they were a normal human that is.

"..."

However, Itsuki could ''see'' something with his right eye.

Through the eye patch, through the palm of his hand, he could ''see'' them clearly.

... Red eyes.

The blazing red eyes glared at Itsuki from three meters above. There were six eyes in all&mdash;two on each head.

It was a massive, fearsome three-headed dog.

It was almost twice as tall as Itsuki, and had stiff black skin and hellish red eyes&mdash;not to mention the three heads that almost spanned the whole width of the alleyway. Each of the heads had a strong demonic presence, as if even just looking at it would cause one's soul to be snatched away.

... ''It perfectly matched the figure in the reference documents.''

"... A-Ah, um..."

''"GARAAAAAAAA"''

Burning hot breath emanated from the left and right heads. Just the passing wind of that breath made Itsuki's hair stand on end. Any hotter and he'd have been burned to a crisp.

Naturally that would be the case.

It was like a fusion of its ancient ancestor who guarded the gates of the underworld and the Black Dog that strode through Europe. According to the reference documents, its breath's maximum temperature was two thousand or three thousand degrees. No matter what, any human would be turned to ash in an instant. Such was the nature of magical beasts.

However, if we are talking about humans with a magical eye, perhaps they had some method of resistance...

Immediately after,  <!-- jonathanasdf:I wanted to keep the original format where "resistance..." leads into "... Correction", so got rid of the ellipses here.-->

Itsuki waved his hands in front of his face with all his might.

"No... um... I-I definitely taste horrible!"

With all of the desperation of a grade schooler being extorted by a middle schooler, Itsuki vigorously shook his head.

... Correction.

He had absolutely no way of resisting at all.

''"GRYYYYIII?"''

''"JRYYYYIII?"''

''"ZRYYYIIII!"''

The three heads examined Itsuki from different angles.

It looked like they were arguing over which head would get to eat him. Or maybe they were just trying to decide how to cook him.

"Uh, uh, ahahaha...!" Itsuki let out a dry laugh.

As if pleased with the reaction, the three heads smacked their pure white teeth together.

They were laughing.

With a twisting sound, something cold grabbed onto Itsuki's back. <!-- jonathanasdf: According to http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=2485 zoku is chill/shiver, but I don't see zokun... I don't see how grabbing someone could produce a "twisting sound", whatever that is. -->

"Awaawaawwawaa!"

As he let out an incomprehensible scream, Itsuki flailed his arms and legs.

At the same time, the demon dog jumped.

It was unbelievably nimble. Even though it seemed to rub against the sides of the narrow alleyway just by walking, it had kicked off the walls two or three times and landed behind Itsuki.

"Wh-Whaaaa?"

His eyes widened to the size of a dinner plate.

However, he had no time to be astonished. Within a moment, Itsuki's field of vision was enveloped in pure red.

It was a pure red, burning, terrible-smelling...

tongue. <!-- jonathanasdf: 顎　translates (at least from online translators) to chin/jaw, but I think tongue makes more sense here... -->

''*Lick*''

"..."

''*Lick, lick, lick, lick...*''

"....................eh?"

He opened his eyes.

Through the sticky saliva, he saw the demon dog panting and wagging its tail. The dog wagged its tail with all the eagerness it could muster, as if this was the happiest moment of its life.

"Wawawawawa!"

The three heads licked Itsuki's face over and over feverishly.

From behind, a jolly voice rang out.

"Oh, as expected of you, President, being the first to arrive."

"... Hey, Nekoyashiki-san."

Itsuki, covered in slobber, turned around. He saw a young man holding a folding fan.

He was a head taller than Itsuki, had bleached silver hair and long, thin eyes that stretched to the bridge of his nose. His figure seemed to personify the word "beautiful." However, his Heian-style ''haori''<ref>A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haori#Accessories_and_related_garments Haori] (羽織) &mdash; a type of traditional Japanese over-robe.</ref> and folding fan easily destroyed any traces of that beauty.

Also, just as his name implied<ref>Nekoyashiki (猫屋敷) means (猫 : cat) (屋敷 : mansion)".</ref>, from within his haori, ''they'' popped out here and there...

''"Meow"''

''"Meorw"''

''"Mrrow"''

''"Me~oww"''

... four in total: white, spotted, black, and calico cats.

"Mm... there, there. I was a bit caught up with feeding these children, so I ended up coming late. Cats are good, they are. Treasures of humanity. Treasures of the Earth. No, no, space... space-time; no, the treasures of ''alaya-vijnana''<ref>The Buddhist concept of "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaya-vijnana Eight Consciousnesses]," or the consciousness forming the base of all human existence.</ref> they are! The saying that a cat is worth a thousand gold pieces is stingy, for in the opinion of myself, Nekoyashiki Ren, they are worth ten thousand... no, a million!" <!-- jonathanasdf: It's hundred million in the text, but that's because the Japanese number system goes up by 10000s, whereas the English number system goes up by 1000s, so I think it's more natural in English to say million instead of hundred million. Doesn't really change the meaning at all so if you guys prefer to stick to the text then change it back to hundred million. -->

"Uh... rather than discuss cats, what the heck is with this dog?!"

Itsuki complains while the demon dog's rough tongue continues to scrape against his skin.

In contrast, the man festooned with cats placed his folding fan against his mouth and tilted his head to the side.

"Hm? What about it? You heard that it likes people, right?"

"Likes... people?"

That kind of went without saying. Except that rather than liking people, Itsuki had the impression that it liked ''to eat'' people.

"Oh, President. Once again, it looks like you only skimmed the reference papers. This time it's a pet search. Got it?"

"P-Pet?" Itsuki parroted involuntarily.

"Though it's only a subspecies of the descendents of Cerberus, it still makes an ideal familiar. It ran away while being transported. Looks like we've finished our request, haven't we?"

"..."

Itsuki said nothing.

However, there was a visible change in the demon dog.

''"GRYYYYYY?"''

Suddenly letting go of Itsuki, the dog let out a howl, wary of the man and the cats. It heaved its body around.

"My, my, Ultros-san!"

It had incredible agility.

Ultros, the demon dog, rushed down the alleyway faster than Nekoyashiki could even shout.

''"&mdash;Cleanse, purify&mdash;"''

This time, a lisping but cool and clear voice echoed down the alleyway.

''"Cleanse, purify. Amidst woven pattern of rock and cloud, blade of the wise great god, disperse all misfortune, the Buddha in Heaven..."''

An evergreen branch adorned with white strips of paper&mdash;a ''tamagushi''<ref>A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagushi tamagushi] is a traditional Shinto implement</ref>&mdash;moved in the darkness. As it waved, the demon dog jumped far back, returning to where Itsuki stood. It hung its head and whimpered as if it was discovered by its master while it was making mischief.

"Huh?"

Itsuki blinked.

At the other end of the alleyway stood a young lady with pigtails. Actually, she looked to be about eight. Rather than a young lady, she could more accurately be called a little girl.

Her clothes looked a bit like Ren's. She wore a pure white ''chihaya'' with a crane design, together with a crimson ''hakama''. That is to say, a ''miko'''s<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miko Miko] (巫女) are traditional holy women of the Shintou religion.</ref> outfit. She had a red schoolbag on her back and apparently had come directly from school.

"Enough, Nekoyashiki-san. Didn't you hear that this one gets timid when it senses other magical beasts' spell powers?"

Puffing out her cheeks, the little girl stood with her arms akimbo.

Her name was Katsuragi Mikan. A third year elementary school student; she was an employee-under-contract in the ''Shintou''<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintou Shintou] (神道 ''lit: way of the gods'') is the popular mythological tradition of Japan.</ref> department. That is to say, this was her part-time job.

"Ahaha. An honest mistake."

The young man called Nekoyashiki Ren let out a carefree laugh. He was the acting senior managing director and head of the ''Onmyoudou''<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onmyoudou Onmyoudou] (陰陽道) is a traditional Japanese occult system of thought that mixes ideas from many Asian philosophies.</ref> department. He was said to be the main force behind and leading '''<Astral>'''.

"Well then, shall we leave the last part to our President?"

"Eh, me?"

Itsuki's eyes were still spinning as Nekoyashiki handed him three seals. Complicated symbols danced across the surfaces of those slips of paper. If you showed those seals to someone even slightly versed in calligraphy, their eyes might have flown wide in amazement. However, they had no effect on the current Itsuki, whose eyes were already wide open.

"So... you've gotta stick them to its heads. If I go any closer, it'll get scared and run away again."

"..."

Itsuki held his breath.

He looked several times from Nekoyashiki to the demon dog and back. He thought of asking Mikan to do it, but she was on the other side of the dog.

"U-Under...stood."

With a completely pale face, Itsuki nodded like a puppet.

"Good luck, President Onii-chan," Mikan said, smiling. <!-- jonathanasdf 14 June 2011: For now I'm un-italicizing these. Please give your opinion on whether to italicize Onii-chan and similar terms here: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=1895&p=86615#p86615  In places like here, this really does matter. Before reading the raws, I completely had the impression that Mikan was a devilish child who like making fun of Itsuki, because I was imagining her putting emphasis on the Onii-chan part when saying these lines. -->

"Ah... ahahaha." A dry laugh leaked out of Itsuki as he stepped closer and closer to Ultros.

''"GRYYYYYYYY?"''

"I-I-I-It's alright. I won't hurt you..."

''*Pat*''

The first one.

With that, the left head drooped and fell comfortably asleep.

''"JRYYYYYYYYYY"''

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I'm not doing anything... just sticking some seals here..."

''*Pat*''

The second one.

''"ZRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?"''

"......!!!!!"

Just as he affixed the third one, Itsuki lost consciousness. For real this time.

"O-Onii-chan, President Onii-chan?"

"My, oh my!"

''"Me~eorw?"''

Itsuki felt as though voices were calling him from far off.

Bye bye. See you later. Thank you.