Chapter 2 — Let’s Just Keep Going! Let’s Believe in Kouryu’s Abilities!
The dragon described in Japan and China was a chimera built from multiple animals. It had the head of a camel, the antlers of a deer, the body of a snake, the scales of a carp, the feet of a tiger, and the talons of a hawk. Kouryu’s dragon form was almost identical to those depictions.
Aboard this dragon were two humans and one android, flying over the sea. They weren’t especially high in the air—-only a few meters over the surface of the water. They had just escaped from a sinking ship. Yogiri was in his school uniform, as always, while Tomochika and Enju wore swimsuits. They had been playing at the pool when pirates had attacked, and with everything that had happened since, they hadn’t had a chance to change.
“Wasn’t there an old folk tale in Japan like this?” Tomochika asked from where she sat between the other two.
“You mean Taro the Dragon Boy?” Yogiri answered from the front.
“Yeah, that! Wait, was his name Taro? I thought it was Kotaro?”
“Now that you mention it, both sound possible.”
“I imagine his name was Kotaro,” Enju said from the back. “I have heard the story of Kotaro of the Springs.” The android, of course, was being controlled by Tomochika’s ancestral spirit, Mokomoko.
“The opening of the anime version had kids riding on the back of a dragon, didn’t it? I always wondered what that would be like, but it’s not that great, is it?”
“Yeah, the scales are kind of sharp, so it hurts to sit on them.”
“And he’s a bit too big to sit on comfortably.”
“I’d rather ride a western dragon. That gives you more of a feeling of being a dragon rider, don’t you think? This is more like riding a snake. I don’t even know how he’s flying without wings.”
“You mean like the wyvern you slew upon first reaching this world?” said Mokomoko. “Even that creature shouldn’t have been able to fly, given the way its body was constructed. It must have had some sort of mysterious power as well.”
“Don’t you guys think you’re complaining a bit too much for a free ride?!” Kouryu finally cried, breaking his silence.
“As a mythical creature, don’t you think you could make it a more comfortable experience?”
“People aren’t supposed to ride me in the first place.”
“You can already transform between human and dragon form,” Tomochika replied, “so can’t you transform to be a bit easier to sit on?”
“You’re asking an awful lot considering I’m letting you ride at all!”
“But it would have been a problem for you if we went down with the ship, right?” Yogiri observed. “You want us to defeat the Sages for you, don’t you?”
“It’s not like I need you to do it,” Kouryu muttered. “Some low-level Sages dying won’t change anything. Wanting to see them die is just for entertainment.”
“What connection do you have to the Sages?” Yogiri asked. He knew Kouryu wanted them to kill the powerful beings, but he hadn’t given any reason for it.
“I suppose the only connection I have would be to the Great Sage. It’s not like I have anything against the others. I just figure if they die, it’ll bother him.”
“Well, regardless of what you want, we’re just collecting Philosopher’s Stones. I don’t really care what happens to the Sages themselves.” It felt like Kouryu had dodged around the topic, but Yogiri didn’t care enough to press him.
“By the way, you said something about knowing another way we can get home?” Tomochika asked, reminding Yogiri of the conversation they’d had earlier.
“I do. With this other method, you don’t need to defeat the Sages or collect Philosopher’s Stones.”
“Seriously?! Were we just going to get to the end and then find out we didn’t have to do any of that at all?!”
“Sounds like something you might see in a manga that got suddenly discontinued,” Yogiri commented.
“But of course, I want to see you kill the Sages, so I can’t tell you the details right away!”
“Hey!”
“I’m not trying to be mean or anything. Collecting Philosopher’s Stones is probably the easiest way. And besides, you have no way to prove I’m telling the truth.”
“Well, I guess...”
“So you should keep fighting the Sages like you’ve been doing.”
“Even though you said getting rid of the Sages makes the world more dangerous?”
“Aha ha, I guess I shouldn’t have said that.”
“We should take everything this guy says with a grain of salt,” Yogiri cautioned his companions. “We can’t trust him completely, so we should probably keep looking for a way to get back ourselves.”
“We have no choice but to trust him to take us to land, at least.”
Kouryu continued flying in the direction the boat had been heading.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?”
About half a day had passed since they had escaped from the ship. Flying should have been faster than the cruise, but the scenery around them hadn’t changed at all. There was nothing but ocean everywhere, with no sign of land in sight.
“No idea,” Kouryu replied offhandedly.
“Hey!”
“I’m just flying in the same direction the boat was heading.”
“The ship was en route to Ent, so that should be the correct choice, but...” Mokomoko trailed off. They didn’t have any guarantee that the boat had been heading for the island in a straight line.
“Which way is east?!” Tomochika asked. “Oh, we can just check the sun! Except that it’s cloudy!”
“Even if you could see the sun, would that help you?” Yogiri answered. “We have no idea what direction the sun is in here, do we?”
“Oh! I just took it for granted that the sun always rises in the east! So where does it rise from in this world, Kouryu?”
“Huh? Is it always the same?” the dragon asked.
“This guy is totally useless!”
“Maybe if we gain some altitude, we can see some land.”
Kouryu was flying only a few meters above the water. With no obstacles, there was no need to fly any higher, but they couldn’t see very far like this.
“That’s not an option,” Kouryu replied. “If I fly too high, I’ll get caught by the Sages’ defense network.”
“You did mention that if you flew, the Sages would try to stop you. Does that mean it’s okay as long as you stay low?” Tomochika asked.
“This is just to make me feel better. I figured it might be harder to find us this close to the surface.”
“We haven’t been found out yet, so we’re probably fine...”
“Who knows? The area around Ent is part of Yoshifumi’s jurisdiction. There’s a chance this method won’t work there.”
Yogiri had thoroughly disabled the Sage Raiza, so flying in his territory was no longer a problem. That might have been the only reason they have been safe so far.
“Oh! Why don’t we just send Mokomoko up again?” Tomochika suggested. “She’s a spirit, so they probably won’t notice her. She did that earlier to find a city for us, right?”
“That won’t be possible while moving at such a high speed,” Mokomoko replied. “The coordinates would become an issue.”
“You’re useless!”
“You really have no respect for your ancestors, do you?”
“Why don’t we just have Kouryu slow down, then?”
“Because if I slow down, we’ll fall.”
“You’re useless too!”
“Let’s just stop,” Yogiri suggested. “You said you could make a boat out of Furemaru, right? Let’s take a break.”
“Furemaru” was short for “flexible material.” Mokomoko could alter the form of the mysterious material they had obtained from the robot aggressor at will. She had said earlier that she could make a boat with it.
“Sure, that’s possible, but I don’t think now is a good time for that,” Kouryu said.
“Why not?”
“Look at the sky.”
The three of them looked up as Kouryu had instructed. There was a thick layer of clouds above them, but from a small gap in those clouds a beam of light was shining through.
“That looks a bit off to be the sun.”
“It looks like some shining people...”
Tomochika saw them first, but soon enough Yogiri could make them out too. It was a group of people with wings. They had weapons in hand and were heading towards them.
“Angels?!”
“Nothing so fancy,” Kouryu explained. “They’re just automatic defense devices built by some idiot who likes to pretend to be a god.”
Upon closer inspection, their skin had a glossy finish. Either they were covered from head to toe in armor or were made from armor-like material.
“There’s no chance they just happened to come down to have a picnic or something, is there?”
“We’re the only thing around, so it’s highly unlikely they have an objective other than us.”
“That’s what I thought! Whoa!” Tomochika yelped as Kouryu abruptly changed course. A moment later, water shot up and sprayed them. Something had fallen right where they had been a moment earlier.
“Huh?” Tomochika’s face was frozen in surprise. “What?! Hold on a second!” The angel-like beings were throwing spears at them, forcing Kouryu to dodge around them as he flew. “You’re supposed to be a god, right, Kouryu?! Shouldn’t you be able to make a barrier or something to block them?!”
“Sure, I can make barriers. The reason you’re not being blown off my back by the wind is because I’ve got a barrier up to isolate you from the surrounding environment.”
“But it won’t work against those attacks?”
“It could handle some attacks, but taking one from them would be a bad idea.”
“All right, then; they’re just throwing spears, so they’ll run out eventually, won’t they? Wait, where are they getting more from?!”
“They may just be fakes, but they are fakes of angels. I’m sure they can make more themselves.”
As Kouryu had confirmed, the moment the “angels” threw their spears, another spear would appear in their empty hands.
“Anyway, I can’t keep this up for too long, so I’d appreciate it if you did something about them, Yogiri!”
“Well, I guess a few of them are going to hit us.”
The lines of killing intent that Yogiri could see were becoming gradually more focused on them. The accuracy of the fake angels was slowly improving as they adjusted for Kouryu’s movements.
“Die.”
As Yogiri muttered the word, the angels suddenly lost all strength and fell from the sky. Plumes of water shot into the air as they impacted the ocean in quick succession.
“I feel like I’ve seen this before,” Tomochika muttered. “But wait! Why didn’t you just do that right away?!”
“I thought if Kouryu could dodge them, we could get away without having to kill them.”
“Hmm. It seems they appeared despite us maintaining a low altitude,” Mokomoko remarked. “As such, there should be no problem if we climb higher now, correct?” The fake angels had been completely wiped out, so there shouldn’t have been any danger in it.
“I suppose that’s true. You could also say that seeing them means we’ve entered another Sage’s domain.”
“Yeah, but we’re not getting any higher, are we?”
“Yeah, I’m kind of at my limit. Dodging around like that really took a lot out of me.” Rather than climbing higher, they were actually beginning to descend.
“Huh? What’s going on?!”
“We’re falling.”
“Wait, seriously?!”
They gradually dropped until Kouryu’s belly hit the water.
“Mokomoko, the boat! Make the boat!”
“Got it!” A black substance began to pour from Enju’s mouth. It spread out in a thin film, taking the form of a small rowboat resting on Kouryu’s back.
“Well, that was gross!”
“It was faster to hide Furemaru inside of the robot! Hurry up and get on!”
The three of them quickly climbed onto the boat.
“Wait, what am I supposed to do?” Kouryu asked.
“Can’t you just turn back into your human form?!”
“Not while I’m flying.”
“Let’s go!” The boat slipped off the dragon’s back and struck the water. Still carrying the momentum of Kouryu’s flight, they skipped forward across the surface of the ocean a few times before stopping.
“Kouryu!” Tomochika shouted, turning back.
He hadn’t accompanied them and had mostly sunk into the water, not making much progress. Then he vanished beneath the waves.
“Is he going to be okay?!”
“Well, he did used to be a god, so he’s probably fine.” Yogiri didn’t seem all that concerned.
“That’s kind of cold of you!”
“There’s nothing we can do, is there?”
“I guess not. Okay then, let’s just keep going! Let’s believe in Kouryu’s abilities!”
“You change your tune awfully fast, don’t you?” Mokomoko commented.
“Honestly, I can’t really worry that much about such a questionable guy who just popped up out of nowhere.”
“We have to make it to land so that we don’t put his sacrifice to waste,” Yogiri said. “Mokomoko, can you go up and take a look?”
“Perhaps I am in no position to talk, but what is with these two?” Mokomoko muttered as she left Enju and floated up into the sky.
Yes, I can see land! she called a moment later as her usual ghostly self.
They had no idea if the land in question was Ent, but they decided to head there for the moment.
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