Rental Magica Volume 1: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

1

Well then, let us begin a story of magic.

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

Iba Itsuki screamed, and, injured--fainted.

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

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

However, Itsuki hardly noticed it, and instead was looking 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 it wasn't dyed or gelled. Even though it was a holiday, he still 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 kind of humorous.

Now, though this boy was pressing his eye patch, he had a serious reason.

In his left eye, he couldn't see anything.

If someone looked around, they wouldn't see anything to be afraid of. They wouldn't see anything but the shadow of a young boy in a dark alleyway.

If they were a normal human.

"..."

However, Itsuki could see something with his right eye.

Straight through the palm of his hand pressing against his patch, he could see them clearly.

--Red eyes.

The blazing red eyes glared at Itsuki from three meters above him. In all, there were six eyes--two on each head.

It was a fearsome, massive, three-headed dog.

It was several times taller than Itsuki, had black, stiff, starchy skin, and eyes that burned red like Hell--not to mention three heads that spread across the whole width of the alleyway. Each one had a terribly devilish gravity to it, as if looking at one would cause your soul to be snatched away.

--Evidently, it matched the reference documents to a T.

"... A-ah, um..."

"GARAAAAAAAA"

Burning hot breath emanated from the right and left heads. With just the passing wind of that breath, all of Itsuki's hairs stood on end. If it were any hotter, he'd be burned to a crisp.

Naturally.

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 numbers in the reference documents, its breath's max temperature was somewhere around two or three thousand degrees. No matter what, any human would be turned to ash in an instant. Magical beasts were such things.

However, if it were a human with a magical eye we're talking about here, perhaps there was one method of resistance...

Immediately after.

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

"No, um, I, I don't really taste good!"

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

... Correction.

As a matter of fact, he had no way of resisting at all.

"GRYYYYIII?"

"JRYYYYIII?"

"ZRYYYIIII!"

The three heads examined Itsuki from several angles.

It looked like they were arguing over which one 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 voice. Responding keenly to his voice, the three heads violently bared their fangs.

They laughed.

With a twisting sound, something cold grabbed onto Itsuki's back.

"Awaawaawwawaa!"

As he let out a scream of unknown significance, he flailed his arms and legs about.

At the same time, the demon dog jumped.

It was unbelievably nimble. Even though it seemed to rub against the walls of the narrow alleyway just by walking, it jumped straight up and landed behind Itsuki.

"Wh-whaaaa?"

His eye was like a dinner plate.

He didn't have time to be astonished. Within a moment, Itsuki's field of vision was enveloped in pure red.

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

chin.

--Lick!

"..."

--Lick, lick, lick, lick...

".................................................................................. Huh?"

He opened his eyelid.

With his vision awash in sticky saliva, the demon dog panted and wagged its tail. He seemed to be so happy he couldn't bear it, and with all the eagerness he could muster in one lifetime, wagged his tail.

"Wawawawawa!"

The three heads, with feverish energy, licked Itsuki's face over and over.

From behind, he heard a jolly voice.

"Oh, as expected of you, president, being seen 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. He had bleached white hair and long, thin eyes that stretched to the bridge of his nose. He was a figure befitting of the word "beautiful." However, his Heian-period style haori and folding fan destroyed any notion of beauty about him.

And also, just as his name implied, they were protruding from his haori here and there.

"... Meow"

"Meorw"

"Mrrow"

"Me~oww"

Exactly four cats, white, spotted, black, and calico.

"Mmyes yes yes. 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 earth. No, no, space, space-time, no, the treasures of alaya-vijnana they are! A thousand gold pieces for a cat is stingy; as for myself, Nekoyashiki Ren, ten thousand, no, a hundred million!"

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

The demon dog's rough tongue engulfed almost all of Itsuki.

On the other hand, the man dripping with cats placed his folding fan against his mouth and mysteriously tilted his neck to the side.

"Hm? What is this? You did see, it said he likes people, right?"

"Likes... people?"

That kind of went without saying. Rather, does he like people, or does he like to eat people?

"Oh, President. Looks like you skimmed over the reference docs once again. This time is a pet search?"

"P-pet?" Itsuki parroted involuntarily.

"A subspecies of descendants, be that as it may, it makes an ideal familiar. Since it ran away during a walk, it 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 Ituski, it let out a howl, wary of the man and the cats. It then heaved its body around.

"My my, Ultros-san!"

It had incredible walking ability.

Ultros rushed through the alleyway in one movement, faster than Nekoyashiki could even shout.

"--Cleanse, purify--"

This time, a lisping, but cool and clear voice was heard in the alleyway.

"Cleanse, purify. Among weaved pattern of rock and cloud, blade of the wise great god, disperse all misfortune, the Buddha in Heaven--"

An evergreen branch adorned with white cuts of paper--a tamagushi--shook in the darkness. As it wove, the demon dog jumped far back, returning to where Itsuki stood. It then hung its head and made a whimpering noise, as if it had been discovered partaking in mischief by its master.

"Huh?"

Itsuki blinked.

At the other side of the alleyway, a girl with pigtails stood. Actually, she looked only about eight, and rather than just a girl, she should still be called a little girl.

Her clothes looked a bit like Ren's.

She wore a pure, white, crane design chihaya and a crimson hakama. --That is to say, a miko's outfit. She had a red schoolbag on her back, and she had apparently come directly from school.

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

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

She had said her name was Katsuragi Mikan. A third year elementary school student, she was a worker-under-contract in the Shintou department. That is to say, this was her part-time job.

"Ahaha. An honest mistake."

With that, the young man called Nekoyashiki Ren laughed in a relaxed manner. He was the acting senior managing director and head of the Onmyoudou department. He was said to be the main force behind and ahead of <Astral>.

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

"Eh, me?"

Itsuki's eyes were still spinning. Nekoyashiki handed him three seals. Complicated symbols danced across the surfaces of the Japanese papers. If you showed them to someone even slightly versed in calligraphy, their eyes might have popped open wide in amazement. However, Itsuki's eye was already wide open regardless.

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

"..."

Itsuki held his breath.

He looked around several times at Nekoyashiki and the demon dog. He thought of trying to ask Mikan to do it, but she was on the other side of the dog.

"U-under... understood."

With a completely pale face, he nodded like a doll.

"Good luck, president onii-chan," Mikan said, smiling.

"Ah... ahahaha." Itsuki let out a dry laugh as he came 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 fell dimly, and comfortably fell asleep.

"JRYYYYYYYYYY."

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

Pat.

The second one.

"ZRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?"

"...!!!"

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

"O, onii-chan, president onii-chan?"

"Me~eorw?"

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

Bye bye. See you later. Thank you.