PrologueThe crossdressing girl who belonged to the special forces team Sleipnir─Jeanne Hortensia─possessed rare "eyes."
Long-range vision discerning objects faraway, dynamic vision capturing objects moving at high speed, peripheral vision providing full awareness of everything within view─
Despite such excellent vision in all respects, what was truly outstanding about her was the mental functions capable of processing the information obtained through sight.
Her eyes were so sensitive that the information conveyed to her brain was more than ten times that of a normal person. By processing this information meticulously, she also commanded high-level spatial perception and situational judgment.
So-called intuition was based on information provided by the senses of sight, hearing, smell and touch; sensory predictions borne from heuristics.
In Jeanne"s case, vision alone already secured sufficient information to drive intuitive decisions.
Information obtained through vision was the fastest since light was the medium.
Consequently, her intuition was keener than other people"s without needing to depend on input from sound or smell.
Asgard"s laboratory at Tokyo, j.a.pan─Fourth floor underground.
Witnessing the awakening of the Kraken"s child, she immediately made the split-second decision to retreat.
A tiny split had appeared on the silver tentacle... The instant Jeanne caught sight of the purple eye through the gap, she understood faster than anyone else.
Over there was a monster that she could not handle.
Leaving behind the lab director Miyazawa Kenya, standing there petrified in surprise, Jeanne went back in reverse along the same way she had infiltrated the lab.
Reaching the ground took five minutes.
Due to electrical systems being down, the lab"s premises were shrouded in darkness. The security system was also silent.
Wanting to get out the sooner the better, Jeanne was racing to the perimeter fence when calamity struck.
Part of the lab"s front yard, a neatly trimmed lawn, swelled up, then dirt and soil was blown up into the sky.
This left a deep hole as a result.
Looking down the bottomless pit, Jeanne felt a chill run along her spine.
─It was coming.
Seeing the purple glow amidst the darkness, Jeanne turned around and ran as hard as she could.
However, it came chasing. Jeanne could feel the presence approaching, cleaving apart obstacles.
─Why me?
The question surfaced in her mind, but she did not even have the leisure to look back.
Continuing to escape while avoiding populated areas, Jeanne then heard a small crying sound.
"...Huh?"
Surprised, Jeanne looked back─And saw it.
Chasing after her was the figure of a young and crying girl.
The girl"s eye glowed purple while her long hair undulated eerily.
Totally non-human, it would not be wrong to call that a monster"s appearance.
However, the girl"s countenance bore neither hostility nor the intent to kill.
In the darkness, Jeanne"s excellent vision accurately read information from the girl"s facial expression in the distance.
It was unease, sadness and yearning.
The girl was yearning for her. That was what Jeanne intuited.
Immediately, Jeanne"s fear subsided, because she understood that despite being a monster wielding astonishing power, more importantly, she was just a crying child.
Halting her footsteps, Jeanne waited for the girl to approach.
Using her silver hair as wires, the girl destroyed everything in her path while advancing.
Despite getting hit by flying debris, Jeanne did not evade.
She had seen many examples of such children before.
Lost and helpless children, whose parents had died in battlefields.
Jeanne herself─was one of them.
The majority of those who enlisted in the military at this age were of such backgrounds.
Seeing that Jeanne had stopped moving, the girl stopped crying and showed surprise on her face.
"It"s okay. I won"t run anymore."
As Jeanne looked her in the eye and told her, the girl broke into a desperate run.
With silver hair fluttering, the light sound of footsteps, the girl rushed at Jeanne─and hugged her.
Then she began to cry again, loud enough to echo in the surroundings, clutching Jeanne"s clothing tightly.
Seeing the girl"s flowing tears, Jeanne was convinced.
This child was─human.
"She is... not a dragon. Like us, she is—Human."
At the house where Monon.o.be Mitsuki used to live with her original family, in the second-floor bedroom...
Thus murmured the awakened Jeanne Hortensia, recalling her encounter with the girl.
In front of Jeanne, surprised expressions surfaced on the faces of two girls.
Kili Surtr Muspelheim and Lisa Highwalker.
Jeanne had heard from Kili and Lisa that the girl─Kraken Zwei─was going to be put down as a dragon.
But after actually meeting the girl, Jeanne had come to understand that unlike other dragons, Kraken Zwei was not a monster impossible to communicate with.
"Human... You keep saying that, Jeanne-cha─No, but weren"t you captured by that thing? I nearly got killed, going all-out to rescue you."
Kili remarked with displeasure. She almost used Jeanne"s real name but Jeanne usually called herself "John" under a man"s guise.
Jeanne was extremely afraid of her real gender coming to light. Despite finding it a nuisance, Kili reluctantly accommodated.
"Captured...? No, that wasn"t what happened─I"m certain that..."
Jeanne felt her own body. In surprise, she swallowed the remainder of her sentence.
"What happened? Could you share in greater detail?"
Seeing Jeanne"s puzzled look, Lisa asked in a serious voice.
Placing her hand on her own chest, Jeanne answered in a perplexed voice.
"I"m... supposed to be dead─It was when I tried to protect her."