“Everybody get behind cover!” Mitsue yelled. He threw another smoke bomb, blocking off more of the street.

  “Don’t worry!” Harue said scornfully. “It would take more than a bullet… wouldn’t it?”

  She disappeared. James didn’t know what that meant, but he ran forward to check on Kana. His armour could stop a bullet… couldn’t it?

  Suki followed him. “Get to cover,” he urged.

  “Where?” she asked reasonably. “We don’t know where the sniper is. And besides, they want me alive.”

  “Look,” James said, pointing ahead of them. The swordsman had turned on his heel and run back into the smoke.

  “They’re not pressing the attack.” Mitsue still had his sword drawn and was facing in the direction that the attack had come from. But he had fallen back to check on Kana. “I don’t think the sniper is from the same group.”

  The sound of a car starting and fleeing lent some support to his theory.

  “Who, then?” James asked. He’d reached Kana. Blood was still pouring from the wound in a steady stream. He reached for it instinctively, thinking about plugging the hole, but invisible hands moved him aside.

  “Whoa! Don’t touch the blood, champ, it’s not good for humans.” Harue’s voice came out of thin air.

  “I thought you’d run,” James said accusingly.

  “I just don’t like getting shot, is all,” Harue said easily. “How are you feeling about it?”

  “I’m happy it hasn’t happened yet,” James said. “What do we do?”

  Harue’s voice turned grim. “She’s not regenerating,” she said. Green fire started playing around and inside the wound, causing the blood to sizzle. Kana shifted and groaned.

  “We should get her under cover,” Mitsue said. “In the shopping mall?”

  “It’s closed,” James said stupidly. What he wanted to say was that they couldn’t afford to set off the alarms and summon the police. What they would do when they found them with an injured dragon, James couldn’t imagine.

  “Hang on, alarms can be tricky,” Harue said. “Let me take care of the doors while you work out how to move her.”

  James was, he thought, strong enough to lift Kana, even in this form. However, he wasn’t wide enough to lift her. Lifting her up at one end, cradling her head and neck in his arms, only lifted a small portion of her length off the ground.

  “If I try from… here,” Mitsue said. Grunting from the strain of it, he lifted some of Kana’s body. She drooped alarmingly between them, but didn’t reach as far as the ground. Her back half was still resting on the tarmac, though. Mitsue had avoided the wound, but James was glad to see that it had stopped bleeding.

  “I don’t think I can… but if I try from here?” Suki grabbed Kana close to her tail end, where the body was thinner. It was also more flexible. Now, the tip of Kana’s tail almost touched the ground, and there was still a large section of her body between Suki and Mitsue that was dragging.

  With a ding, the mall doors opened. A moment later they were joined by Harue’s invisible voice.

  “I see you left a space for me, she said. The drooping section lifted itself off the ground. “Let’s go.”

  They staggered through the open glass doors. Harue directed them to the side, but made them drop Kana’s body before they went too far inside.

  “I’m not sure I found all the sensors,” she said.

  James suddenly realised that he smelt burnt plastic.

  “What do we do now?” Suki asked.

  “I’m making a call,” Harue told them. “Mitsue, do you find it really weird that there weren’t any follow up shots?”

  “I do,” Mitsue confirmed. He examined the wound closely. “Are you responsible for the cauterization?”

  “Had to stop the bleeding somehow. Pick up!”

  Mistsue frowned. “You should have removed the bullet before doing that,” he said.

  “If we can remove the bullet, or the poison or whatever, her regeneration should take care of everything,” Harue said. “I think. Pick up! Can you, like, do something to her phone?”

  “What?” James asked. If having Harue talk to him while invisible was disconcerting, having her talking on the phone while invisible was doubly so.

  “Finally! Hi Aunt Saia! Medical Emergency.”

  There was a pause.

  “Kana got shot by a rifle and she isn’t regenerating. She was still bleeding until I cauterised the wound.”

  Another pause.

  “Yeah, she's still alive! But… she’s getting weaker.”

  For just a moment, the self-confidence dropped away.

  “Well how long will that take? Okay, I’ll send you our location.”

  Harue became visible again. She dropped to the floor and took a deep breath.

  “Auntie Saia… You called the school nurse?” Mitsue asked.

  “Do you know any experts in dragon medical care?” Harue asked. “Cause there aren’t any! On account of dragons never needing them!”

  “Can she help?” Suki asked. She sat down next to Kana’s head and started stroking the dragon’s brow. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

  “She said that she’d bring someone who has magical healing,” Harue said.

  “How long will it take for her to get here? Wait—how is she going to get here? She’s on the island and the ferries have stopped!” James stopped when Harue glared at him.

  “She has ways, all right? The random factor is how long it will take her to find this guy.”

  “Is there anything we can do in the meantime?” Suki repeated.

  Harue thought about it. “Ki,” she finally said. “You boys could feed her ki, that couldn’t hurt.”

  “How?” Mitsue said. “I can gather my ki, but I cannot transfer it to someone. You’re not thinking we…”

  “She needs to eat it,” Harue confirmed. “Vampires gotta drink blood, Dragons need to eat their prey.”

  “We’re not feeding ourselves to her,” James objected.

  Harue rolled her eyes. “I’ll go get you some food to try enchanting,” she said. “Stealing stuff always makes me feel better, anyway.”

  “Could you… not steal stuff?” James suggested. “You’ve got all that money.”

  “Well yeah, but where do you think I’m gonna find that’s open around—never mind, that’s a great idea.”

  She disappeared.

  “I wish I knew if she was teleporting or going invisible or what when she does that,” James complained.

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  “It would be nice,” Mitsue agreed. “However, the matter that occupies me right now is the distinct lack of police.”

  “Isn’t that good?” James asked. “The last thing we want right now is police.”

  “True, but I worry about favourable unexplained events as much as unfavourable ones. We just fought on the street outside. There was rifle fire, smoke bombs and a dragon. Someone must have reported something, and yet there are no police here to investigate.

  “Master—” Suki started, then stopped with a grimace. She tried to start again, but something seemed to be stopping her. Finally she sighed. “Master wouldn’t like his agents to be interfered with by the police.”

  Mitsue frowned. “You think he ordered the police to ignore all reports from this area?”

  Suki shrugged. “H—Master has influence. I don’t know how much control Master has.”

  Mitsue looked out into the darkness. “The agents have gone, but I suppose that’s not the sort of thing that you just cancel.”

  “Probably not,” Harue agreed.

  James stifled a startled “Gah!” as she appeared out of thin air, carrying a bundle of leaves. “Did you have to do that?” he asked.

  “I really did. Here, I brought food. Make with the magic.” She handed a delicious-smelling package to James and Mitsue.

  “These are warm,” James said, staring stupidly at the yakitori skewers wrapped in bamboo leaves.

  “Well spotted. Nothing gets by you, huh?”

  “I mean, where did you go, to get them this late?” James asked, blushing.

  “I got them from the Night Market,” Harue said. “I was just going to snatch some packaged food from around here, but you had a good idea. Fresh food is better for this.”

  “You say that as if we should know what it is,” Mitsue said.

  “Oh… yeah. I guess it’s for spirits, so you wouldn’t know,” Harue said.

  “It’s for spirits?” James asked. “Can we get medicine there? Can we take Kana there, and get her away from here?”

  “Oh, no, that would be bad.” Harue looked down at the packages she was still holding. “Can you hurry up and make with the food? If this doesn’t work, I wouldn’t mind eating one of these myself.”

  “Why would it be bad?” James pressed.

  “Well, the Night Market is mostly weak spirits,” Harue explained. “They band together and hide from humans. They make themselves useful to the stronger spirits by trading goods.”

  “Stronger spirits like you and Kana,” Mitsue put in.

  “Yeah, I guess. There are stronger spirits than us around, but these guys are weak. But do you know how a spirit can get stronger?”

  Harue grinned a wide, predatory smile.

  “All you have to do is eat the flesh of a stronger spirit.” She pointed at Kana. “As she is right now, she wouldn’t go five minutes before someone took a bite out of her.”

  “That’s terrible,” Suki said. Harue shrugged.

  “It’s a spirit-eat-spirit world out there, Suki. Not much we can do about it.”

  “What about you?” Mitsue asked. “Do you desire to eat Kana’s flesh?”

  Harue looked over at the unconscious dragon. “I mean it would work,” she said. “I might get an extra tail out of it. But my sisters and I stepped off that rat race.”

  She placed one hand over her heart and looked up at the ceiling. “We serve a higher power. Now get with the magicing!”

  “Right, right,” James said. He looked down at the skewers. He had no idea how he was supposed to do this.

  “Start by feeling inside yourself,” Mitsue said, staring down at his own yakitori. “It can feel like either a warmth, or a coolness. It moves with your breathing, but it is not your breath.”

  James did feel something. A coolness. Or was he imagining he felt it?

  “Focus on it,” Mitsue said. “Gather it. And then…”

  “You’re getting it,” Harue told Mitsue. “Say the spell.”

  “Do I have to?” Mitsue complained. “It is ridiculous.”

  “If you want to come up with your own spell, then be my guest,” Harue said. “But you know the words to this one, you know what it does. All you have to do is believe.”

  “I do not believe that I am a magical maid.”

  “You’re better than any of them. You’re a ninja, magically trained. You can do anything they can do, only better!”

  Mitsue grunted, with either effort or acknowledgement. Then he said the words.

  “Fluffy fluffy, shiny shiny, with love— become delicious!”

  Mitsue gasped and collapsed on the floor. Harue rescued the skewers before they could fall.

  “Hmm, not bad,” Harue said, examining them closely. “Let’s see if they work.”

  She held a yakitori under Kana’s nose. At first there was no reaction, then the dragon's mouth opened and closed down on the food, skewer and all. There was a single crunch before Kana swallowed.

  “That can’t be healthy,” James said.

  “You’d be surprised,” Harue said. “Mitsue was sloppy with his spell, he got as much ki in the sticks as in the food.”

  She examined the fallen dragon closely. “Yeah… I think it helped. Her spirit is a bit stronger. Your turn.”

  James went back to staring at the yakitori. They smelled delicious. He put that out of his mind, tried to focus on that feeling of coolness. Of coolth. It wasn’t really cold, so why not make up a new word for it? He gathered his coolth.

  “That’s it,” Harue said. “More of that.”

  Encouraged by her words—maybe he wasn’t imagining it?—James tried to gather more coolth. He imagined—not imagined, felt—it gathering in his hands.

  “Great, now say the spell.”

  Oh god, am I really going to do this?

  “Fluffy fluffy, shiny shiny, with love—become delicious!” He could feel his face going red.

  “Mean it! Believe it!”

  “Fluffy fluffy, shiny shiny, with love—become delicious!”

  “Harder!”

  “Fluffy fluffy, shiny shiny, with love—become delicious!”

  Suddenly it felt like all the energy he had drained out of him. He slumped, almost dropping the skewers. Then he jumped, as a new voice made itself heard.

  “I swear, every time I think I’ve seen the most embarrassing thing imaginable… someone finds a way to top it.”

  When the man who had said that walked into the mall foyer, the world lit up in pink. Everything around him seemed to glow in various shades of fuchsia, magenta, rose and… James ran out of pink colours.

  The man that entered was tall and broad-shouldered, made all the more so by the golden epaulets on his pastel pink military-style jacket. He wore a short, chiffon cape of the palest, softest pink that James had ever seen, edged with a pattern of blooming peach blossoms. His white gloves extended just past his wrists and his long shorts were a dazzling shade of rosy magenta. His knee-high boots gleamed like polished porcelain. A golden, heart-shaped brooch at his chest pulsed with lingering power.

  His hair was teased into radiant, gravity-defying waves, dark strands streaked with sunset hues. His eyes burned with righteous determination, lined with just the faintest hint of sparkling eyeliner. His smile was not just warm—it was the kind of gentle, unwavering kindness that promised to protect the dreams of all, no matter their age.

  “Auntie Saia!” Harue protested, “Just because it’s out of hours, doesn’t mean you can bring your boyfriend along!”

  “He isn’t my boyfriend, Haru-chan,” Nanamori Saiako said. She’d been standing beside the pastel vision the whole time, but James hadn’t noticed her. Which had to be due to magic because the thin silk yukata was barely containing her full figure and—James went back to staring at the guy. Much safer.

  Saiako continued speaking. “This is Magical Love Soldier Pretty Peach, and he is a medical professional.”

  “I’m sure we’d all love to sit in a circle and tell stories about each other, but I hear that someone is dying.” Pretty Peach strode forward, his gait and voice completely at odds with his costume. He came up to Kana and inspected the wound.

  “She was shot?” he asked.

  “A large calibre rifle, from at least 200 metres,” Mitsue said.

  “Are these burns from the wound?”

  “I did that to stop the bleeding,” Harue said nervously.

  Pretty Peach sniffed. “Amateurs.”

  James watched, barely daring to breathe as the man in ridiculous pink shorts knelt beside Kana’s unconscious form. He raised a hand over her, his fingers wreathed in soft, shimmering light. The air around him shimmered like summer heat, carrying a strange warmth that made James’ skin prickle.

  “Gentle breeze, golden dawn, kindness everlasting—” The words rang with power, completely at odds with the absurdity of the man saying them.

  James flinched as Kana’s body spasmed, her scales seeming to recoil from whatever magic had taken hold. Then, from the wound—a sickly, festering gash just below her shoulder—something moved. A bullet, slick with dark ichor, peeled itself from the injury, caught in the pink glow. It hovered there for a moment, writhing as if it didn’t want to leave, before Pretty Peach clenched his fist.

  The magic pulsed. The bullet disappeared behind a shimmering crystal shell, its corruption locked away. Beneath it, the wound sealed, flesh and scale knitting back together as if it had never been torn apart.

  Kana didn’t wake. She barely stirred, her breath coming slow and faint. Pretty Peach sagged back, rolling his shoulders like he’d just finished a workout. His expression was split between grim satisfaction and a tired resignation. He let out a slow sigh.

  Saiako stepped forward and placed her hand on Kana’s brow. She frowned and lifted a massive eyelid so she could examine the dragon’s eye.

  “She’s out of danger, I think,” the fox-woman said. “I’ll need to keep her under observation for twenty-four hours… or for as long as she stays unconscious, if that’s longer.”

  “Um, Auntie Saia?” Harue said. “We broke into this place, we can’t stay here much longer… and she’s really hard to move.”

  She looked at Pretty Peach speculatively. “Unless your boyfriend can magic up a pink humvee.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.” Saiako pinched the bridge of her nose. “We’re deeply grateful for your help, Pretty Peach. Can I offer you a lift?”

  “I can make my own way home,” Pretty Peach said. His deep voice continued to remain incongruous. “Just make sure that girl recovers properly.”

  “I will.”

  “Then until next time.” He raised his hands in a dramatic gesture. Suddenly, peach blossoms exploded into existence around him, so thickly that they covered his form. When they dispersed and fell to the ground, he was gone.

  “Oh, come on!” Harue exclaimed disgustedly.

  “That’s just how Magical Boys are,” Saiako said tiredly. “He needs to protect his identity.”

  “He’s not even wearing a mask!”

  “Isn’t he? Can you remember his face? Duplicate it?”

  James could remember the man’s face. His eyes, so filled with fervour that they could change the entire world… James quickly suppressed that line of thinking.

  Harue was having trouble though. “This is bullshit!” she cried.

  Saiako shrugged. “It’s part of the magic.”

  James looked around for the others. Mitsue was staring in disbelief at the petals from Pretty Peach’s exit. Suki was standing near him. She’d somehow acquired a yakitori stick.

  “Is that—” James asked.

  “Yes. It’s the one that you filled with your love,” Suki said. “It seems that Kana will not be needing it.”

  Suki delicately grasped the first morsel of chicken in her lips and slid it along the skewer. When it got to the end, she popped it into her mouth and chewed it.

  Her eyes widened.

  “It tastes… more delicious than I could possibly have imagined.”