Sly, aggressive and stupid.

This may be a little dangerous.

No, it’s not just a little.

It’s quite dangerous.

Extremely dangerous.

Catastrophically dangerous.

If I were to compare it, it’s the same cold sweat you get when a car suddenly rushes past as you were about to go across at a pedestrian crossing. Actually, instead of cold sweat, your nerves are hit with a wave of excitement causing your heart rate to rise, your pupils to dilate and blood vessels to contract. Biochemically speaking, those are the symptoms I’m facing. [1]

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I blinked a few times before looking up at the face above my head. It’s kinda frustrating, but there’s too wide a height gap that my neck hurts from having to look up that high.

“Just, what are you doing”

“What, did you do it?”」

Something has been rampaging within me. Ever since I was forced to drink Captain-san’s blood.

I could feel the heat spreading throughout my body, beginning from the boiling feeling in my heart.

It wasn’t just a slight fever. A high fever, making me light-headed and dizzy.

He seemed to be satisfied with my condition as he smiled and looked down at me.

Just as I thought that something strong was supporting my back, my feet left the ground. Moving back a few steps, I was leaned against the wall. The feeling of the cold, inorganic material on my back, helped ease the discomfort. My temperature only continued to rise, as if not knowing how to fall.

―― Ahh, it’s hot. My body is hot and I feel like I’m going crazy.

“Please, answer me”

The sweat forming on my forehead was wiped off with his hand, which naturally made its way down to my neck. My body instinctively reacted to his cold fingertips.

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His well-shaped lips uttered with a smile.

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“— Re-contract”

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“Re-, con, tract?”

A recon-tract? Contract? Con-tract?

What’s that, ugh, it’s tiresome just to think. But if I give up thinking, I feel like I’d lose, as if I ran away. I don’t want to do that. Just what had happened to my body, my brain was fully rotating to try and grasp the current situation as I looked at Captain-san.

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“You said you’d protect me. So I just carried it out.”

“…I said that, I did say that. Even so, would there be some-, anyone, who’d sign a contract without consent?! Protect, you say, this and that, are completely different situations!”

I said I’d protect him, but I don’t want to enter a contract again and end up reverting back into a dragon’s body! No, I don’t actually know what’s going to happen, but I at least understand that something close to that will happen.

Nevertheless, I, my articulation hasn’t been functioning very skillfully.

“What kind of situation?”

He had a smile, as if he just wanted to try saying it.

…Wait a minute, was Captain-san always like this? Didn’t he become a little meaner? Isn’t a little heartless, or even twisted? …Did I, make you like this?

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“In, in any case, what do you mean, re-contract. I’m, a human, you know? It’s not like I’m a dragon, so such a thing, there’s no way, it’d work――”

“Even though your body is honest”

My pale white hand moved to my chest, where my heart beat so hard it felt it would burst. Even just that, was dangerous. I felt like my whole body would melt from the fever.

“The contract I made was not just for the body. It’s the soul. And rather than a re-contract, it might be more accurate to call it a new contract. This time you, are not the main host, because I am.”

Main host? Does it matter who’s the main host? What does it mean, if Captain-san is the main host?

I was full of questions and wanted to ask so many things. But just like a cup being filled with water, it simply accumulated whatever I didn’t know, till it overflowed while I could only watch. [2]

Still, I have to say something, so I start to weave together my words and spoke sharply.

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“In, in the first place! Why aren’t, you surprised…! I, I die” [3]

Argh, I can’t speak well!! My tongue won’t move properly, and I feel like I’m dying from a fever!

“Not, Vito, she, she’s gone, but I”

A human who was weaker, smaller and less reliable than her. A through and through realist who denied this world up till a while ago.

It was a physiological response, that my vision was blurred by tears.

“I was surprised. To think that, Vito’s soul was of a human from another world, and that the hero Riya summoned was that human’s younger brother, and the purple dragon, I’m sure it’s the dragon of 300 years ago, that dragon’s contractor was that human’s older brother. But the strange sense of incongruity I felt when I first met you was not wrong. It struck me… just how small, delicate, and cute, the real you was”

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But you see, he quietly muttered, as he put his hand to my cheek.

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“To me, the fact that ‘you’ are in front of me right now is all that’s important”

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His beautiful smile and honeyed phrase were thrown at me.

That I can’t just honestly be happy, is it because my path is twisted?

I guess I’d still be a cute girl if my cheeks were dyed red as I put my hands to my chest to dampen my rising heart rate, but in actuality, I was blinded by his dazzling smile and avoided his eyes, while chewing my lips to hold in my embarrassment.

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“Such, a thing”

Such words.

Such an expression.

Really, the captain is too sly.

‘Her’ thoughts which had been held back all flowed in at once.

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“…for now”

“For now?”

“I want, to escape”

“I won’t allow such a thing”

He didn’t just say it. His face came unbelievably close.

“… I understand. I won’t run or hide. But, please just tell me, one thing”

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My body which was burning, as if something inside me had formed and it’s job was done, gradually calmed down. My thoughts too, seem to have returned to normal.

I can no longer turn back.

I take a deep breath, and exhale. Bring fresh oxygen into my lungs. Release the unneeded carbon dioxide back out. Just that, and my head became clear.

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“Captain-san, just what is it that you want from me?”

The sweet words he whispered felt like they were glazed and candied.

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“Everything”

It was an immediate answer.

“I want your everything. All of it. For you stay within my reach, I want you to stay by my side”

“…and what about, my will?”

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“Because you said so, didn’t you? That you like me”

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What is he saying? And another blindingly dazzling smile.

The cold, expressionless face that I encountered as Itoka almost seems like a lie with this gentleness, and the Captain-san before me now was almost like a good young man who helped to pick apples that the young apple seller girl had dropped. This was a sudden change. Is this, also my fault I wonder.

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―― “I like you. I love you”

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I said it. I did say that. Eeh, I remember it!! My life’s first and last and biggest confession!!

But that was on the premise that I would never see you again, as part of my last words. I never thought that we’d ever meet again like this, and that it would be used as pretense like this. I said it, as a part of my final will of sorts. 

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“Now look here. It is true that Vito li-liked Captain-san. But that doesn’t decide whether Itoka, that is I, likes you or not.

Li-like or something [4], who would say such an embarrassing thing!

While I was puffing my cheeks, he smiled mischievously.

“How stubborn”

This is the third time I’m hearing this today. Am I really such a stubborn and inflexible person I wonder. Nevermind, I don’t need to ask such a thing. I’m sure I am.

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“Yes, that’s right. I’m stubborn! I’m a weak human with a narrow heart that takes a long time just to admit and recognise one thing. Amazing right!”

“That’s not something to be proud about”

Captain-san put his hand on his mouth as he began to laugh weirdly.

I was saying it seriously and was slightly upset about that, but seeing that figure somehow brought me relief.

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This is the him that I know, I thought.

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“Anyways, I’m fine as long as the Captain-san is safe. Because this is, undoubtedly, my own feelings! Please shut up and let me protect you!”

When I pointed my finger at him, he took my hand and gently brushed his lips against the back of my hand.

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“Un, protect me”

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My face, even I knew that my face was getting hot.

A sidelong glance is against the rules!!! Red card! I request that you leave right now!!

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The captain, whom I met after a long time, was going crazy in a strange way.