Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 12 - Chapter SS1

Bonus Short Stories 
A Mascot and His Puns 
Gideon, City of Duels 
It was the first day of the Love-Duel Festival. 
King of Destruction, Shu Starling, King of Beasts, Behemot, and Behemot’s Superior Embryo, Leviathan, were walking to the second arena to see a certain event. 
Behemot was comfortably seated in Leviathan’s hands, while Shu was right next to them. 
Naturally, this trio was attracting a lot of attention. 
After all, it was a group of a single fine lady and two mascot-like creatures. 
Far too often have they been approached by families and couples wanting to take a picture with them. 
“Sure thingy. Stay in line, though. Don’t be overbearing.” 
Shu didn’t even seem to mind them and gladly agreed, making him hardly different from some mascot in an amusement park. 
“...Tch.” 
Leviathan was maintaining a cool expression, but the blood vessel on her forehead made it clear that appearance betrayed. 
This was mostly due to all the couples asking her if she could take the photos. 
They actually thought that she was just a woman who spent this festival doing nothing but taking group shots of the couples and the bear. 
This group happened because her Master, Behemot, wished for it, but she was losing patience every time she was asked to take a photo. 
Once the last of the many couples left with their shots, Leviathan spoke to Shu, not hiding a bit of her hostility and murderous intent. 
“Why do you just let them take photos?” 
“Hmm... I’m a guy in a costume, so it’s be beary bad if I was cold to people.” 
“You were the same when we first met. Why do you insist on being approachable?” 
Indeed, he had been the same back when Leviathan had come to take Behemot from him shortly before The Clash of the Superiors began. 

“’Tis the burden of all those in animal costumes.” 
“About that... I understand that you use the costume to hide your face, but there’s no reason for you to use puns, is there?” 
Shu Starling was a Superior. 
Leviathan knew that he was wearing a costume to hide himself. 
However, there was no good reason for him to act like a friendly and quirky bear character that children would love. 
Leviathan had wondered about this for a while, just like she had wondered why he was standing out so much despite wanting to hide his face. 
“...” 
Shu said nothing in response, but it didn’t seem that he didn’t want to answer. 
In fact, it seemed as if she’d pointed out something he hadn’t realized himself. 
“...You’re joking, aren’t you?” Leviathan asked as she understood what his silence implied. 
“...Nope. I’m just not conscious of it. I just got my paws on a costume, put it on, and before I knew it, I was speaking with puns.” 
He did have control over his puns and dropped them whenever they weren’t needed, but the very first pun he used in a costume just came naturally to him. 
It might’ve been something he’d picked up in his child actor years — “People in animal costumes have to talk funny” or something along those lines. 
“Why not stop using them?” Leviathan asked. 
“I won’t. It’s just how I am. You’ll have to bear with it!” 
“...I see.” 
“Why not join me, Behemot? Add some flavor to your speech.” 
“’porcupine?’ tl;dr,” Behemot responded, saying that it was hard to craft puns around the type of animal she was. 
“...” 
During that exchange, Leviathan swore to herself that she would most definitely launch a surprise attack on Shu for saying something stupid to her Master.

The End