"You really are impossible, Tohru."
Seeing how enthusiastically Tohru was inviting him to climb on, Takumi could only leap up and mount her back.
The next moment, with a powerful beat of her wings, she shot straight into the clouds.
Whoosh!!!
The wind howled around them, only to be blocked outside by a magic barrier.
Sitting on that cool dragon back, Takumi found the feeling... lacking.
His gaze drifted around for a moment before quickly locking onto Tohru's head.
"That's it—Ryujinmaru!"
In the next instant, Takumi sprang up, landed on Tohru's head, and grabbed hold of one of her horns.
He couldn't fit one whole horn in a single hand, but grabbing part of it was no problem.
"Woohoo~~~"
Now this felt completely different.
Tohru, on the other hand, was baffled.
"Was sitting on my back uncomfortable? Why are you standing on my head?"
Takumi was small enough that she didn't feel burdened or uncomfortable at all.
She was just confused about why he was doing this.
Hearing that, Takumi waved a hand. "It's from an anime I watched. There's a mecha in it called Ryujinmaru. I'll pass the info to you so you can take a look..."
As he spoke, he extracted part of that memory and showed it to her.
Once she understood the context, Tohru's interest immediately flared.
"That robot is way too weak. There's no way it could beat me."
"If it were you piloting me, Takumi, it'd definitely be even stronger."
"It's just that the robot's outer shell would be kind of hard to copy... I'd need to work on it a bit."
Tohru said all this with sparkling enthusiasm, already wanting to turn herself into a high-spec Ryujinmaru on the spot so Takumi could have the full experience.
But before she could start, Takumi stopped her.
"I just wanted to experience what it feels like standing on a dragon's head. I wasn't asking you to literally become Ryujinmaru."
Patting one of Tohru's horns, he told her to hurry up and head down.
Their real business right now was buying groceries to take back and cook, not fooling around in the sky.
"Ugh~ And here I thought we finally had a rare chance to be alone."
Tohru grumbled under her breath, but she knew they couldn't keep playing.
She slowly descended from the sky and landed in front of Touma Street.
The moment she touched down, Tohru shifted back into her dragon-maid form, standing beside Takumi in the middle of the street.
"So this is where humans gather. It's really lively. Feels pretty similar to the markets I've seen before."
Looking around, Tohru very naturally hooked herself onto Takumi's arm.
"This is a market. There's no 'pretty similar' about it."
As he said that, Takumi led Tohru from storefront to storefront, explaining what each one sold and how things worked.
Tohru's expression gradually shifted from half-understanding confusion to full confidence.
"Leave it all to me!"
She immediately marched up with her shopping basket and called out to the fishmonger, "Human, I want this fish!"
"Huh?"
The shopkeeper gave her a puzzled look, clearly not quite understanding what Tohru was trying to do.
The way Tohru carried herself looked less like she was buying something and more like she was issuing an order.
Seeing that, Takumi nearly spat blood.
"Ahem. She's from overseas and doesn't really understand how things work here. Tohru, you exchange these for goods."
As he explained, he held out the money.
Now that Takumi had smoothed things over—and with Tohru looking that cute—the fish seller had no intention of making an issue out of it.
"Hahaha~ It's fine. If you don't understand, you can learn. I'll catch you a nice fat one."
The fish seller immediately went to pick one out, while Tohru fell into thought.
"So that's how it works. In this world, people use this kind of useless paper to exchange for things... and if you act friendlier, the other side also tends to act friendlier."
"You still don't really understand human society, but this is already a lot better."
Takumi let out a breath of relief. At least Tohru was making progress.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Tohru suddenly looked warily toward the department store nearby.
"Takumi, what's that building over there that looks like a holy knight's castle? Are there dragon-slayers hiding inside?"
"No. That's a large shopping mall."
Taking Tohru by the hand, Takumi explained while guiding her around.
But as they walked, he quickly spotted Miko and Hana Yurikawa on the street in the distance.
The two of them had stopped in front of a fortune-telling shop and seemed to be planning to get their fortunes read.
And crouched behind an ad board at the corner nearby was a petite JK with twin tails fading from yellow into pink, carefully peeking toward that fortune-telling shop.
Seeing such a strange little scene, Takumi became interested.
He activated his Emerald Eyes and checked on Niguredou Yuria.
She was also a first-year at Kuoh Academy, just not in the same class as him either.
[Name: Yuria Niguredou]
[Level: None]
[Traits: Favored by Fortune (Green), Yin-Yang Eyes (White)]
[Yin-Yang Eyes (White): Can see ghosts and monsters, but the ability is limited and only allows her to see the lowest-level harmless ones.]
"A white-grade pair of Yin-Yang Eyes... not sure whether that means she's lucky or unlucky."
Takumi muttered to himself, filing her away in the back of his mind.
And naturally, once he noticed that fortune-telling shop, Tohru noticed it too.
"Fortune-telling? Humans in this world can do that?"
Curious, Tohru tugged on Takumi's hand, clearly wanting to go take a look.
Takumi considered it for a second, then nodded.
As for that tiny bit of guilt he felt toward Miko, it instantly turned into shameless righteousness.
It wasn't like he'd deliberately gone out of his way to bump into her.
Even if Miko found out later, they could each call it what we wanted.
She could call him Master, and he could call her Daughter. That way the relationship structure stayed perfectly intact, right?
Feeling rather pleased with himself, Takumi immediately followed along and headed over to the fortune-telling shop.
Granny Takeda was in an exceptionally good mood seeing so many customers today.
"This time I should make a killing~~"
Though she had once been an exorcist, that was in the past.
These days, what she mostly did was scam and bluff people for money.
The moment Hana Yurikawa and Miko approached, Granny Takeda immediately called out, "Fortune-telling for wealth, love, anything you want. I also have secret methods for exorcism. You girls can take a look at all of it."
"Wow~ That sounds amazing. I wonder if Takumi-kun can do that kind of thing too?"
Hana Yurikawa exclaimed in surprise, clearly half-bluffed already by Granny Takeda's sales pitch.
The next second, Takumi's voice came from behind them.
"I'm not really good at fortune-telling. I'm only a little capable when it comes to exorcism."
"Eh!? Takumi-kun!"
The instant she heard his voice, Hana Yurikawa spun around.
The moment she saw him standing there, she excitedly threw herself at him.
"I can't believe we ran into you here, Takumi-kun! I'm so happy!"
Duang~~~
That heavy, soft fullness pressing into him—combined with the sweet, distinctly youthful scent of a teenage girl—sent a tremor through Takumi's heart.
And that, naturally, left Tohru looking extremely displeased.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.