A thunderous boom drew the attention of the entire venue.
The two performers on stage froze as well. For a moment, only the backing track continued playing inside the arena.
"Tsunayoshi!"
Before Ichigo even turned toward the source of the sound, he called Tsunayoshi's name first. They were very familiar with the Reiatsu released by that explosion. It was Ginjō's Reiatsu.
Without needing Ichigo's instructions, a thin mist had already quietly covered the venue. Every audience member in the arena showed excited expressions, then sank into deep sleep one after another.
The moment Tsunayoshi sensed Ginjō's Reiatsu, he had already released an illusion. Ginjō was human, so in order to block the ordinary crowd's line of sight, an illusion of Mist Flames was necessary.
Looking toward the direction of the sound, they heard Ginjō shout, "Stop!"
A crawling creature was rapidly climbing along the wall toward the roof. Immediately afterward, it flapped its wings and flew into the vast night sky.
"Ginjō, what happened?" Ichigo immediately rushed to Ginjō's side and asked.
Right now, Ginjō was gripping Cross of Scaffold in his hand. Both of his hands were trembling nonstop, as if he were desperately suppressing his anger.
When Ginjō turned back and saw Tsunayoshi, his expression grew even uglier.
"Tsunayoshi… Yūko… Yūko might really have been a Hollow in disguise!"
Compared to his forceful denial from before, the reality laid out in front of him now forced Ginjō to believe it. The Disguiser Dragon they had been searching for all these days was the very Yūko he had been dating.
Returning to the moment when the concert had just begun, after Ginjō and Yūko expressed their feelings to each other, Ginjō noticed that Yūko's expression was clearly wrong.
The soft hand in Ginjō's grasp suddenly became tense. After Yūko's pupils contracted slightly, they dilated again, as if she were experiencing some sort of pleasure.
Her mouth physically split all the way to her ears. With a frenzied expression, she murmured, "At last… At last, someone has expressed true love for me!"
"This is wonderful. As a reward, Ginjō, I've decided to let you stay with me forever!"
All of a sudden, Yūko's body unfurled like a roll of bandages. Her entire body transformed into a huge, eerie, terrifying mouth that lunged toward Ginjō to devour him.
Although his mind had not caught up, Ginjō's battle-hardened body had already reacted. The pendant around his neck transformed into Cross of Scaffold and landed in his hand. With a powerful swing, Ginjō smashed "Yūko" away.
The sound from before had been "Yūko" crashing into the wall after Ginjō struck her. Flattened against the surface, "Yūko" also began revealing her true appearance. She no longer looked human at all. Rather, she resembled a hairy-legged reptile.
Seemingly realizing that Ginjō was not easy to deal with, "Yūko" did not intend to continue attacking him. However, her desire to be with Ginjō had not faded.
"Ginjō, wait for me. Wait for me to come back and take you away!"
No one knew how the eyes of this crawling creature could show such a crazed look, but "Yūko" stared at Ginjō once before swiftly climbing the wall and fleeing.
Ginjō, left standing in place, felt so conflicted that he could barely describe it. He had finally mustered the courage to express his love. Before the joy of having that love returned could even rise within him, "Yūko" personally extinguished it.
The instant "Yūko" opened that huge mouth, what Ginjō felt was naked malice.
What did it feel like to personally send the one you loved flying? Ginjō could not put it into words. Right now, all he could do was bury his feelings deep inside and share the information with Tsunayoshi and the others.
"I understand. Leave this to us. You should rest for a bit," Tsunayoshi said, patting Ginjō on the shoulder.
Calming down was the best choice for Ginjō now.
"Hey, Tsunayoshi, that's the Disguiser Dragon! I told you that bitchy smell couldn't be hidden!"
Without even changing out of her stage costume, Ninny stepped on silver light and shot over to Tsunayoshi's side, loudly proving her point.
Ginjō's gaze dimmed a little further.
So Ninny had already warned him a week ago. He had simply failed to take it seriously.
"Let's not talk about that right now. The concert audience and staff have all fallen into my illusion. We'll split into two groups. One group will chase the Disguiser Dragon, and the other will stay behind to protect everyone else, in case the Disguiser Dragon doubles back," Tsunayoshi said.
"Niiha and I are going after it. It's our target!" Ninny immediately said.
As witches, dealing with Dark Dragons was their duty.
"I'll stay here. Karin and Yūko are both here, and Chad and Orihime aren't especially fast. We'll stay together and protect the audience."
With his little sister present, Ichigo did not get carried away. He took the guard duty of his own initiative.
"I'll stay too. With Kurosaki and me here, that dragon won't get even half a step closer!" Uryū said confidently.
As long as he fought back-to-back with Ichigo, their attack coverage would be omnidirectional.
"In that case, Tatsuki and I will follow Ninny's group in pursuit. Tatsuki, take out the flash device."
Following Tsunayoshi's instructions, Tatsuki took two camera-like devices from her bag and tossed them to Ichigo. These were devices Kisuke Urahara used to erase the memories of humans who witnessed abnormal phenomena.
"Even though it was only for a very short time, we can't guarantee no one noticed what happened with Ginjō. Ichigo, take the devices and make a round, just in case anyone slipped through the net."
The moment Tsunayoshi finished speaking, Ginjō stepped forward again. He had already made his decision.
"Tsunayoshi, I'm going too. I want to end this love that was wrong from the very beginning with my own hands!"
Tsunayoshi was not surprised at all.
If Ginjō did not have at least this much mental fortitude, he would never have been able to build Xcution after being abandoned and betrayed by nearly everyone around him.
"The illusion will last for one hour. Defeat the enemy and come back within that hour, and your concert can still continue," Tsunayoshi said to Ninny.
"No problem. I'll come up with a good excuse!"
Ninny waved her hand grandly, and two small dragons, one blue and one red, flew over. These two dragons had been hidden in Ninny's bag backstage.
Just as the witches were about to mount their brooms, a cold voice stopped her.
"Ninny, what exactly is going on? What was that monster? Who are these people? And why can you… fly?"
Jealousy and confusion appeared together in the eyes of Ninny's companion. Macy Baljure, the tall, beautiful girl with an intense possessiveness toward Ninny, questioned her.
In truth, after the incident began, she had followed Ninny and run in this direction. She simply did not have Ninny's abilities, so after jogging all the way over, she happened to arrive just as Ninny and the others were preparing to set out.
"Seriously…"
Ninny had no desire whatsoever to explain Reverse London, Dark Dragons, or anything of the sort to her teammate. She could only glare fiercely at Tsunayoshi, silently questioning why he had not knocked Macy out too.
But that was not even the main point.
The main point was, why could Macy see dragons?
Ninny no longer had time to think about such things. Right now, she only wanted to get rid of Macy, this troublesome problem.
Tsunayoshi scratched his head, a little embarrassed. Because of Ninny, when he released the mist, he had instinctively avoided the stage. As a result, Macy was still awake.
It was not too late to use an illusion now. Tsunayoshi cast a single glance over, and Macy, who had no ability to resist, immediately fainted.
Seeing Macy collapse, Ninny let out a breath of relief and hurriedly activated her flight magic, flying toward the outside of the stadium.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! We can't let it escape!"
The others quickly chased after Ninny. None of them had expected the Disguiser Dragon to be so cunning. After arriving in Japan, it had actually changed its face. If they let it escape again, finding it would become troublesome.
However, what Tsunayoshi and the others did not know was that this time, the Disguiser Dragon would not flee.
It had already obtained what it had dreamed of: the most sincere love of a man.
Now, it needed to make itself complete through evolution.
The Clear Sky Tower, the tallest tower in Karakura Town.
A crawling creature was rapidly climbing toward the top of the tower.
Do not worry too much about whether Karakura Town has such a thing. It simply looks nice when the full moon, an iron tower, and a flying dragon are combined.
As it climbed, the Disguiser Dragon's body gradually grew larger, as if evolving from a young dragon into an adult dragon. During the process of evolution, feathers also gradually grew out across its body.
Rather than feathers, they were more like scales. They resembled fish scales, shimmering under the moonlight.
By the time it climbed to the top of the tower, its wings had also completed their evolution. Fin-like wings spread open, carrying it even higher into the sky.
Its dragon tail swayed freely in the air. The thick and powerful tail was crescent-shaped; rather than a dragon's tail, it looked more like a fish tail.
Under the bright moonlight, the fully evolved Disguiser Dragon slowly landed atop the tower. Behind it hung the full moon, and every scale across its body reflected the moon's dazzling, multicolored light, adding a rainbow-like divinity to its form.
"That's… a dragon?"
Even from a distance, Tsunayoshi could see the fully evolved Disguiser Dragon. Aside from its dragon head and dragon claws, Tsunayoshi could not tell what connection this so-called dragon had to a Western dragon at all.
Scales that reflected light like fish scales. A powerful dragon tail like a fish's tail. Fin-like wings that, once spread, could cover the entire tower. And dragon horns shaped like seashells.
Was this thing really a dragon, or was it a fish?
"So beautiful."
As someone moved by visuals, Tatsuki immediately sighed in admiration. She did not notice at all that both Ninny and Noel had completely frozen expressions.
"By the way, is a dragon of this level really something you two can eliminate?"
Tsunayoshi had already sensed the Reiatsu radiating from the other party. This level of power was entirely Vasto Lorde-class. Was Wing Bind out of its mind? They had sent two low-ranking little witches who did not belong to a combat division to deal with this kind of dragon?
"How is this possible? Its appearance and size have both completely changed!"
Ninny sounded dazed as she spoke, clearly badly frightened. If all Disguiser Dragons were monsters of this level, she would never have boasted and accepted such an absurdly difficult mission.
"This is probably metamorphosis," Noel said very seriously.
"What?!"
Ninny immediately stared carefully at the dragon perched on the tower.
"Fish-scale-like dragon scales, fin-like wings, and a fish tail! Don't tell me…"
"A Märchen," Noel said with certainty. "This isn't a Disguiser Dragon. It's a Märchen!"
Noel's foundational knowledge was solid. Without waiting for anyone else to ask, she continued explaining.
"According to legend, before Reverse London was born, there already existed seven dragons in this world named after fairy tales."
"Snow White, Red Dress, Golden Axe, Bubbles, Sugar House, Band of Animals, and Cinderella!"
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