Kyou kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyou!

How could there be something like this?

Seeing the unimaginable scene, Hazel Graves raises her head, so surprised she forgets to blink.

The lake that was silent and still just a moment again, suddenly changes drastically.

The overflowing lakewater rises like an inverted waterfall, forming a transparent whirlpool over everyone’s heads. Soon the whirlpool expands until it’s large enough to cover the entire town, and slowly changes in shape.

This is really unbelievable, water can actually stay in mid-air without any support, keeping its shape without freezing, even become the shape of an animal.

Even Hazel, who has lived on s.h.i.+nzoku land for so long, and seen many houjutsu unseen on Earth, is wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

The young man stands waist-deep in the water, glancing over in their direction with a haughty att.i.tude and a sharp gaze.

Originally he was a gentle and kind child.

But a long and elegant water creature seems to grow out of that raised arm. At first she thought it was a snake, but according to what Hazel knows, that thing is closer to an Eastern dragon, even the scales appear on its body one by one.

“Your Majesty… Yuuri!”

Hearing the familiar voice, Hazel looks to the lakeside, and finally notices Lord Weller, running over and yelling at the young man. Maybe it’s because he notices who else is there, Lord Weller points at Wolfram at one side, signaling for him to go to Yuuri immediately.

“Stop him, Wolf! Stop him now!”

Conrad wants to run here, but he’s knocked over by an escaping woman. Once he steadies his footing he readies himself to keep running , but this time he’s stopped by an incoming crowd.

Wolfram wants to put the child in his arms down onto the ground, but the frightened little girl grabs him and won’t let go, that little hand buried in his clothes unwilling to relax no matter what.

“Yuuri! Stop, don’t use maryoku!”

His voice can’t reach the young man’s ears.

Hazel goes “tsk!” and grips her fist tightly again. She runs full-tilt towards Yuuri, who’s standing in the water, trying to shorten the distance between them, but the roiling lakewater is a huge obstruction in her path.

The water dragon locks on to its prey, attacking the flames in a certain place. The roaring flames go out in the blink of an eye.

The lakewater rears its head again, rising like a wall of water into the sky, and forming a powerful whirlpool over Yuuri’s head.

Hazel clenches her teeth, and says this to herself,

I am an adventurer.

Quietly she calms herself down.

As an adventurer, I’ve seen countless scenes. Sometimes when I get into huge problems, I even prepare myself to die. In the ancient tombs and jungle caves I found things that shouldn’t exist in the world, and materials that surpa.s.s human understanding, even coming into contact with those powers that pose terrifying threats.

The scariest is that Box, the Box that blew me up and into this world.

When coming into contact with that evil power, Hazel thought her skin was burning, her bones turning to powder, her limbs cut and sliced open, her neck twisted and snapped, she felt as though she was literally flying towards the sun—the power of that Box is exactly that shocking. Afterwards she heaved a sigh of relief too, glad that she never met such terrifying power again.

And now, that enormous power once again appears before her eyes—the huge Eastern dragon raising its neck and waiting for its master’s orders. That beautiful and terrifying dragon, incites fear and respect even in a nonbeliever like her.

But what is this? The ones who were always by his side protecting him yell his name in panic, and are even trying desperately to stop him. But they can’t stop him in time, they can’t even reach him with their outstretched hands.

The lakewater that rises from the center falls apart at a height about three people tall, it looks like Yuuri is about to be drowned by the rapid currents and beating waves. Before Yuuri is swept intov the waterfall, Hazel Graves is one step faster, grabbing his body.

In the second she runs into the lakewater, she does her best to take a deep breath. When she was younger she could still hold for a few minutes, but by this age, there’s no guarantee. For all she knows she’ll use up her oxygen in an instant, and can’t stand too long in the water at all.

Scared? No, how could she be scared.

Her heart is very calm.

The lake is like the sea in a storm, unbelievable waves binding around their bodies. Their feet can’t touch the ground, pulled into the dark and blue water, and sinking at a scary rate. She tries to estimate how deep the water is, but all she sees is a deep blue circle, it’s impossible to gauge the bottom of the lake with her naked eye.

Her right arm is hugging Yuuri’s body, using her remaining left arm to row with all her strength towards the surface, but their bodies aren’t moving upwards at all. It’s as though he’s being tied down by transparent seaweed, pulling him towards the darkness. To find the reason behind it, she looks towards the bottom of the lake again, and realizes that the dark circle is slowly moving, the water around them starting to spin as well.

Are you kidding me, if a whirlpool appears now, forget swimming to the surface, it’ll be really hard just swimming. Hazel spits out the carbon dioxide in her mouth, smiling bitterly at the direction of the bubbles as they float away—how she envies the bubbles, able to float straight up without any effort at all.

She notices that Yuuri isn’t moving at all, and looks at the young man in her arms disbelievingly.

The young man who was just controlling the water dragon with tremendous power, is now staring at the bottom of the lake without moving an inch, juts staring at the deep blue whirlpool.

The creases on his brow and that sharp gaze that appeared just now, are all but gone. He’s back to being that polite and kind young man during the travels.

Since her strokes are getting weaker and weaker, she decides to relax her whole body and just sink. Hazel can’t help but call G.o.d’s name, and the lakewater takes that opportunity to flow into her mouth.

Lord, if Your holy powers can also reach this country, please lend me a hand as You did when I was young, and save this child.

Even before her prayer ends, Yuuri raises his previously slumped hand, pointing at the bottom of the lake where the whirlpool began, as though searching for someone’s shadow.

A small dot appears in front of his finger, and that dot gets larger and larger, even becoming a pale blue hole.

Hazel can’t help but disbelieve her eyes.

How can this be? This is the only large oasis in the Seisakoku desert, they’re only sinking to the bottom of this turbulent lake because she tried to stop Yuuri who was using maryoku. What’s happening here, what strange power is opening up a hole at the bottom of the lake?

But when a human head pokes through vaguely from that spot, she finally accepts the fact.

But this child, is probably coming through the gap this little buddy opened. He’s pulling someone from over there, someone from another world, and bringing them here. It must be some dimensional wall or some other method to cross dimensions, just like how she was blasted into this world.

Yuuri suddenly twists his body, breaking free from Hazel’s hands. He slowly sinks to somewhere near the bottom of the lake, desperately reaching his hand out to the thing that look like a human silhouette, and then disregards the fact that he’s in the water, yelling,

“Aniki!”

Hazel forgets her own pain as well, her eyes staring directly at Yuuri and the figure. Actually she just has to reach out her hand, and she’ll be able to hook the young man’s leg. Right now she shouldn’t let him keep sinking, and should instead pull him out of the water. But she doesn’t do that, because she can’t.

The figures in front of them become clearer and clearer.

It’s a man and a woman.

The man is blocked by Yuuri so she can’t see him, but she can see the woman clearly. Her long hair is swaying in the water, a young woman in her teens. She seems to see Hazel’s figure too, her movements stopping in her surprise.

She grabs the man’s hand with one hand, holding a thin and long cylinder in the other—could that be an oxygen tank? How could there be such a silly girl, carrying such simple diving equipment?

But no matter how silly the girl is, Hazel doesn’t plan on scolding her.

After all, the girl staring at her… Her face…

“Yuuri!?”

Beside the hesitating Hazel, Yuuri yells at that man,

“I will go back!”

Although they’re underwater, he still does his best to open his throat,

“Although there’s no way now, but I will definitely go back!”

By the time he finishes his words, the whirlpool has gotten stronger and stronger too, and the two figures that were in the center are both sucked inside. Before they can determine where they are, the whirlpool is slowly getting closer, and is so strong it only pulls the two apart.

Ah~~ If only I could talk like him.

Hazel grabs Yuuri’s leg, sighing in her heart.

They’re underwater, technically they shouldn’t be able to talk, and that fact is what tied Hazel down, so even though the name she wanted to yell is already at her lips, she still can’t send her thoughts to the other party.

But no matter what, the name she’s thinking isn’t correct, because that girl isn’t April Graves.

“…NIOR! JUNIOR! Hang in there! Your wounds aren’t serious!”

His hearing is back. Shouri takes a while to recover from his daze and realize that something bouncy is pressed on his lips, and that’s why he can’t breathe smoothly. So he desperately waves his hands, to tell everyone he’s still alive.

“Oh~~ Thank goodness, JUNIOR, you’ve come back to us.”

When he raises his heavy eyelids, he finds that his whole body is dripping wet as he lies on the sh.o.r.e, a naked-from-waist-up Bob and pale Abigail staring at him. What’s surprising is that annoying DJ is expressing his concern too from behind Bob’s shoulder.

As for the Swiss soldiers standing opposite them, they all look awkward, they probably won’t suspect us anymore, right?

The only thing bugging him now is the sea-type Frenchman Francois, with his arms crossed in front of his chest. His coffee-colored face and seductive lips, have a very satisfied smile on them.

Don’t tell me I…

Forget it, it’s better not to think about it.

“Thank goodness, you weren’t breathing when we pulled you out, you nearly scared me to death. It’s all thanks to Francois, who ma.s.saged your heart and performed C…”

“I don’t want to hear it!”

Let’s just pretend that never happened.

But he was drowning at the bottom of the lake, and the insides of his diving suit are soaked too, while the back of his head is being p.r.i.c.ked painfully by the sharp stones in the gra.s.s.

Although he knows it’s irrational, he still can’t help but make a short fuss.

“By the way, what’s up with that plane? That extreme low-alt.i.tude flying style nearly caused an accident! Don’t tell me… Hey, don’t tell me something actually happened?”

“How is that possible, not only is that pilot from the German air forces, their technique is also really impressive, there’s no way they’d crash from this level of aerial trick.”

“Ah? You know that pilot?”

Bob smiles behind his sungla.s.ses.

“Although I don’t know a single person from the Swiss army, but I have friends in Swiss banks. To spice things up here, I invited him to bring his private jet here.”

Shouri sits on the ground and looks around —other than overturned oats, there are all sorts of other things floating on the surface of the lake. Not only are there bent branches and broken bridges, there’s also something you can tell at once is military paint, and the soldiers are hastily cleaning up the mess.

They indeed spiced things up, but why didn’t they take the opportunity to run while the Swiss army are disoriented…

Although the soldiers look embarra.s.sed, they’re still watching us. Even if they’re not treated as criminals, but there’s no avoiding a lecture and apology letter.

“Looks like we can’t escape anymore.”

“But his actions awakened the power of Lake Bodensee. The best proof is, didn’t you and Abigail peek into the world on that side?”

The world on that side?

After Bob’s reminder, Shouri finally remembers. That’s right, I sank to the bottom of the lake, and experienced something unbelievable.

“I…”

“Went there!”

Abigail Graves replies in English, swinging her wet hair excitedly.

“Although it was just for a second, but we went there! We went there, how awesome--!”

“You say we went there, but where the heck is there?”

“Don’t you remember, Shouri? There is the other world, we went to the other world through the bottom of the lake!”

And she added, dissatisfied—“Though only our top halves.”

“Mn, meaning you experienced what happened to Murata at the spot-billed duck lake.”

“Goodness, is it a scene like in the movies when a body is chopped in half?”

In that case, it’s not a dream or an illusion. Shouri slowly straightens up his body and stands. That’s not a beautiful dream he had while unconscious, or a happy illusion drawn up by his oxygen-deprived brain.

I did indeed see Yuuri, and my hand did almost grab my little brother.

“But JUNIOR and Abigail didn’t touch the Box, right? Then why could you instantly open a door to the other world, and how much power was needed? I don’t believe only a small jet rustling up the water, would have this sort of effect.”

“Forget it, a trivial thing like that isn’t worth worrying about.”

Who cares if it’s something unexplainable by theories, or laws of physics, Shouri still reached his hand out for his little brother. In that short time he managed to connect to Yuuri, and even exchanged a conversation that couldn’t turn to sound. So it doesn’t matter what’s the reason, and whose power it is.

In any case Yuuri said it: “Although there’s no way now, but I will definitely go back!”

“Although there’s no way now, but I will definitely go back!”

Shouri keeps repeating that line, pressing his index and middle fingers on his temple, hoping to lock his little brother’s voice in there.

I will wait for you.

“…I will wait for you.”

That little brother who is now far away needs a home to come back to.

Yuuri, your home is here, so you must come back.

Shouri holds his hands tightly and puts them on his knees, murmuring to himself: Come back quickly, Yuu-chan. We’re a family, and Aniki will be waiting for you…

Aniki?

“Aaaaaah--!”

“What is it, JUNIOR? Your gla.s.ses disappeared?”

“Now that you mention it, my gla.s.ses really are gone, but this has nothing to do with that! Y-Yuu-chan called me Aniki, he called me Aniki…”

“Why are you sighing, don’t you wish he would call you Aniki?”

“No! Not Aniki, I don’t want him to call me Aniki!”

Hearing ‘Aniki’, Francois turns around suddenly, looks like people tend to call him ‘Aniki’ or ‘Boss’[1].

“At a time like this, he still refuses to call me Onii-chan—”

The foreigner Abigail Graves shrugs exasperatedly, looking down on the man who’s wailing over this meaningless reason. In the past she heard that the j.a.panese don’t really show their familial affections, but it seems the s.h.i.+buya household is an exception.

Thinking “Is his little brother really that cute?”, she tries to remember Shouri’s brother that she saw that time. But the one who appears in her mind, is the old grandma beside Yuuri.

“I keep feeling as though I saw her somewhere, there’s a really familiar feeling… I say, Shouri, is that old grandma your brother’s friend?”

“What? Old grandma? Who are you talking about, how come I didn’t see her? I’m a guy whose head is filled with only Yuu-chan, y’know!”

“Oh dear, but she was hugging your little brother tightly, eh?”

“What did you say--!? An old grandma hugging him--!?”

After being proud of something not worthy of being proud of, Shouri’s expression changes drastically.

“W-w-w-why would Yuu-chan be together with an old grandma? N-no way, right? I always thought he’s not dating girls of the same age as him because he has no luck with the ladies, and was even relieved from it, but to think he actually likes older ones… Blergh!”

“What’s the matter, JUNIOR?”

“Because the image in my imagination is too extreme, so s-suddenly my stomach… my stomach really hurts…”

“W-when you say that I just realized me too!”

Abigail’s stomach makes an un-cheerleader-like noise too, her guts roaring like a tiger.

“Mn—So you greedy things went to the other world to feast.”

“No, we didn’t!”

“Mn—Francois, could you ask the Swiss army if they’d be willing to lend us the washrooms?”

“YEAH—It’s our first time borrowing a washroom!”

“YEAH, is it!? Is this the time to yell YEAH!?”

He really can’t stand gangster high school girls.

But after that they personally experience, how hard it is to take off a diving suit at the critical moment.