Before I could answer, I heard a child's voice say, "He fled when we were at the market."
Chomp started turning white and slowly transformed into a human form with a childlike appearance. He had white hair and gray stripes starting on each of his wrists, going around his arms and up the sleeves of his blue‑green short‑sleeve hoodie. His pants were white with black pockets and dark blue shoes.
My jaw dropped to the floor and I couldn't say anything for a while. Then Chomp interrupted the silence and said,
"What is wrong with you? Never seen someone transform before?"
"Obviously not. You looked like a Pokémon who was about to evolve, glowing all white and everything."
"What is a Pokémon?" he said, confused.
"Never mind," I said while waving my hand to dismiss it. "So, what are you? A Yuman or a wolf?"
"I'm a Yuman, and I can transform into a wolf, as you've seen. I can use magic called evolve magic, which lets me transform and more, but I haven't learned that yet."
"This boy he is a prodigy. He is the youngest evolve‑magic user on this level."
"That sounds so cool! So, you can transform into any animal you want?"
"No, I'm only able to transform into a wolf, which is tier E. The highest rank is Triple‑S, but only one person has ever gotten to that power, and that's your dad."
The woman grabbed my shoulder. "So you're the son of Basara Yuro! You want someone to teach you magic?"
"Yes… how did you know? I didn't say anything yet."
"Of course you came for that. Why else would Gash send you here after being gone for more than 10 years? Claiming he's 'looking for the one.' Guess he found you and decided you were the one. But then he just drops you off here with me while he can't even meet his wife properly."
Her eyes started burning, the room temperature rose, and she cracked her knuckles.
"I WILL MAKE HIM SORRY FOR EVER LEAVING ME FOR SO LONG WITHOUT A SINGLE WORD FROM A WONDER TURTLE!"
She calmed down and forced a smile on her face.
She clapped her hands, and two cute maids wearing the typical maid outfits you usually see in anime appeared out of nowhere. One had long, straight light‑blue hair and glasses, while the other one had short blue hair. They both looked like each other, so they must be twins.
"Get these two men washed and dressed, and show this guy a room he can stay in after that."
She said, pointing at me.
Then Chomp replied, "He can stay in my room if he wants. It's always so lonely."
"Fine, then you show him after your bath. But first, let's introduce ourselves. My name is Kagura Zenobia. I'm the sub‑alpha of this village. The one with glasses is Hikaru, and the other is Sora, my personal battle maid. Now get out, I need to finish my workout."
Sora grabbed my arm and pulled me toward a door at the end of the room. Hikaru started excitedly talking to me, asking questions like my name and what magic I use. I told her I was Basara Yuro and that I didn't know what magic I could use.
She then stared at me, grabbed my other arm with both hands, and said, "Sora, let go. I want to know what's so special about him."
"No, you just want to fight someone with unknown powers," Sora replied. "Our orders are to bathe these fools, not fight them." She raised her glasses with her finger while saying it.
Hikaru looked really disappointed and said, "Fine." She sighed and let go of my arm.
After walking through a long hallway, we arrived at the bathbut you could say it was a whole bathhouse. It was a traditional Japanese-style bathhouse, and it was massive.
Sora said, "Okay, I assume you know how to wash yourself and don't need help with that."
I wanted to mess with her a bit because she struck me as the totally serious type, so I said, "No, I've never been to a Japanese bathhouse before, so you have to help me."
I was clearly joking, but she looked at me stoically and said, "Undress." I was surprised; she was looking me straight in the eyes.
"NOW UNDRESS YOURSELF!" She looked me straight in the eyes with a fierce expression.
Before I could tell her it was a joke, I heard Chomp yelling and saw him running to the washing area buck naked, with Hikaru chasing him, yelling, "You forgot your towel!"
While I was distracted, Sora was already undressed as well, with a towel around her upper body. She had some pretty impressive… assets that weren't visible in her maid outfit.
She snapped her fingers. "Come on, slowpoke, before they steal all the soap."
I quickly undressed and walked into the bathhouse. I took a seat in front of the shower, picked up some soap, and started rubbing it into my hair. I suddenly felt something on my backit was Sora, rubbing my back with a washcloth.
"You know, I was joking when I said I didn't know how to wash myself."
She ignored me and kept rubbing my back. I caught a glimpse of her face in the mirrorit was bright red from embarrassment. She totally didn't hear me saying it was a joke. I turned around, staring into her eyes to make sure she would hear me this time.
"I was joking, I know how to wash myself."
She looked at me, and I saw her raise her arm… and then everything went black.
I woke up on a bed with pain in my head. I was in a room with Chomp sleeping beside me in dog form. Guess he liked being an animal more than being human.
I really have something with getting knocked out, huh? Man, my head hurts. She didn't hold back at all. I stealthily got out of bed so that Chomp wouldn't wake up. I put on my burned clothes and walked to the door, hearing Sora talking to someone.
"That idiot is messing with me. I should have killed him. How dare he!"
"Oh, come on. It was pretty funnyyou looked like a tomato," Hikaru replied, laughing.
"You still washed him from top to bottom, so you must not have hated him that much."
"I HATE HIM! I ONLY DID IT BECAUSE I WAS ORDERED BY KAGURA-SAMA! So, it wasn't because I wanted to," she said, crossing her arms while continuing to rant about why she really didn't like me. That was the perfect moment to step outside the room.
"Hey, Sora, thanks for that. Now my head hurts."
"I don't even remember what happenedonly that you knocked me out in the bath."
I still knew, but I wanted to mess with her more.
"You tried to grab my chest when I was washing your back," she said angrily.
"No, I didn't. I grabbed your shoulders. I did peek a little, though," I said, laughing.
She started fuming. She grabbed a pen from her pocket and threw it with pinpoint accuracy at me. I couldn't dodge it and ended up with a pen in my eye.
Now I got mad.
"What was that for? Can't you take a joke?"
She pointed her nose up and walked away.
Hikaru walked toward me. "Here, let me help." She pulled the pen out of my eye in a split second.
Hikaru looked at the pen she just pulled out of my eye.
"Don't you feel pain? A pen in your eye can't be a pleasant feeling. Anyway, now that you're done bathing, let's have a sparring session!" she said, hands together, practically begging.
"Sounds fun. I'd like to see what you 'battle maids' are capable of."
"Follow me!" she said, hopping with excitement.
We walked to the backyard. It was massiveopen grass everywhere, with a small platform in the middle.
"Pick your weapon," she said, pointing at a shed.
"No, I'm good. I've always been a hand‑to‑hand combat person.
I'm warning you, though, I'm pretty strong."
Hikaru burst out laughing.
"Fool! As if you'll even touch a single strand of my hair. If you do, I'll become your personal maid and do anything you want." She winked with a provoking smile.
"That's dangerous to bet. And if you win?"
"Obviously you become my personal butler. Fair, right?"
"Sounds fair enough," I replied.
We stepped onto the platform and took our positions.
WellI took a stance. Hikaru just stood there, no guard, no focus… she wasn't even looking at me.
"Here I come. Get ready."
I zipped toward her and threw a punch, but before it landed she casually caught it with one hand and pulled it downward. I almost tripped, and before I could recover, I felt something slam into my back. She kicked mehardthen immediately followed with another kick aimed at my head.
It connected. I swear I felt my skull crack into tiny pieces.
She didn't stop. She kneed me in the chin, breaking what felt like half my teeth and my entire jaw.
"Aw man, you're slow. I was hoping you'd be faster," she said, sounding disappointed.
"I'm just… warming up." I cracked my jaw back in place.
"I was holding back to see what you could do.
The real fight starts now!"
I jumped into the air and aimed a heel drop at her, but she simply pushed my leg aside. I missed completely and got countered againthis time with another devastating blow to the chest.
I coughed up a bunch of blood, and some of my ribs were sticking out of my chest.
"Let's stop. You're clearly not even strong enough to face me without magic," she said mockingly.
I was kind of blanking out, but I felt my blood boil. I remembered Gashhow he got hurt after just one blow from me.
"Hikaru, you better be ready, because I'm not sure if I can hold back anymore."
I saw the tattoos appear, but I still had control of my body.
I clapped my hands, and a massive explosion erupted. The arena floor cracked apart. Then I punched the air, and the shockwave hit Hikaru, launching her across the field. Before she even touched the ground, I appeared behind her and stopped her with my knee. Something snappedprobably her spine.
I thought that was enough… but my body started moving on its own.
Hikaru was already unconscious.
I grabbed her by the collar and formed a fist, ready to smash her face.
This wasn't good. My body wasn't listening at all.
Then, suddenly, I heard a voice.
"Hey, my guy… let me take over. Don't you want more power?
I can give it to you. We're friends, right?"
I opened my eyes and found myself in a strange space, surrounded by swirling blue and black flames. In the center was a single metal chair, locked behind thick steel bars. A person was sitting in that chair.
A person who looked exactly like me.
I was in that chair… but also not in it at the same time.
"Who are you? And why do you look like me?"
"Aw, come on, man. Don't you remember me?"
I stepped closer to see him clearly. He was shackledwrists, ankles, and neck bound by burning black‑flame restraints. His skin was half covered in scales, the other half normal. One horn grew from the left side of his head. His left eye was fire‑red with a cross as the pupil, and he had shark‑like teeth. His scales had a white glow and were light gray with black tips. His hand had sharp claws and a golden ring with a red skull whose eyes were tiny diamonds. His tail was long and split into two at the end.
"Listen man, can you stop staring at me? It's embarrassing."
He smiled with an evil grin.
"Okay, this is enough. I don't want to kill Hikaruwe were just sparring. This isn't a battle of life or death. She's pretty cute, so could you stop messing up her cute face?!"
The creature looked at me, confused at first… then furious.
"YOU REALLY THINK YOU HAVE THE RIGHTS TO ORDER ME AROUND?!"
The mixed flames shot upward as he materialized two short blades made of the same swirling fire.
He tossed them aside, and they vanished before touching the ground.
"No, these will not do," he growled. He reached his left hand behind his head and pulled out a massive sword, easily ten times his size, all made from those same chaotic flames.
"Now THIS will be a great weapon to end you!"
He swung the giant sword down at me
I caught it with one hand and stopped it midair.
"Listen man, you need to understand who the real boss is here. You think you have the right to order ME around? Don't make me laugh. As long as you're living inside me, you listen to ME.
You're getting a bit too cocky… I'm taking back control now."
I crushed the blade with one hand and pointed at the demon‑like creature. As I moved my finger toward the chair, his body was violently pulled back, dragged into the seat, and bound tightly by the flaming chains.
I walked up to him, put one foot on the chair, and kicked it down.
"Who's the boss now, bitch? I'm not getting controlled by a demon wannabe."
The creature got mad and flames shot out of his nostrils. He tried to get loose, but the chains were unmovable.
"Don't you remember our promise? You sealed me inside you so I could grow strongerso I can save my clan. The Tatsu Clan on Level 6. But then you disappeared for 5000 years."
"Sorry dude, I don't know anything from my past other than my name. So whatever promise that was, you'll need to convince me again to keep it."
"You're joking, right? Please tell me you are. I need to save them. They're stuck on that level and treated as slavesfor our unlimited stamina and our scales, which are worth a lot."
"If we were in an agreement, why did you try to take over my body twice already?!"
"Because I'm running out of time! The Dragon Festival will soon start, and the new Legendary Dragon will be born. If they kill it after it hatches…"
His face turned sad, and water formed in his eyes.
"Legendary Dragons will cease to exist."
"Sounds serious. Fine, I'll help you. But no more taking over my body. If you try it one more time, I'll kill your whole clan myselfincluding that Legendary Dragon."
I wouldn't actually do that, but I used the scare tactic so he'd keep his word.
"You said you forgot your past… so that means you also don't know how to use your magic and abilities anymore, right?"
"Yes, that's true. But why do you care?"
"I need you to be strong if I want to free my clan. I can tell you what abilities and magic I've seen you use. That might help, doesn't it?"
"Makes sense. Fine, tell me."
He put his hand on my head, and all the information started pouring into my brain not only the magic, but also some past experiences we went through together.