Chapter 02 – Rabbits are cute. Cuteness is justice. Justice is a rabbit.
I am a human.
That is an unquestionable truth.
But, I can’t remember. Dad and mom, the friends I’m sure I have, my own looks, I can’t even remember my own name.
I have fragmentary memories of being a human, but I have no irrefutable proof.
In addition to that, since I at the moment look like a dragon, I have trouble persuading myself.
I even have recollections of being a young clueless dragon, and certain other knowledge.
How should I put it, it’s almost like my human self was pushed inside the dragon as is.
Almost like possession.
And more than anything, I’m amazed at how calm I am, no matter how confused I am.
[Vito, you o-kay?]
Whilst making cute sounds, it was worried… Now that I think about it, Saus isn’t actually speaking. What I hear is the squeaking, and my brain translates it to the closest [Japanese] terms.
Ah, now that I think about it, I’m japanese. But I can’t remember where I lived.
Annoying.
“Vito” is apparently my name. When I search my memory, it seems that I’ve been staying indoors since I was born in the Vizannu mountains, and that’s where my own name comes from. The one who named me was Saus right after meeting him, since I had no name at the time.
Isn’t it dangerous to randomly name dragons? I feel like I’ve read something like that in a story about the master-servant relationship or something like that. When I tried asking Saus, he replied with: [What’s that?]. Well, for now, having a name forced on me doesn’t seem to give me any trouble. Aah, what a relief. I’m afraid I might carelessly stomp him flat if my lifelong companion ended up being this tiny rabbit… But it’s cute, so I might stay with him anyway.
Oh no. Right now’s not the time for that.
[Saus, there’s something I want to ask you.]
[I’ve been listening so far? You’ve kept saying strange things.]
In order to at the very least slightly look each other in the eyes, I sprawled down on the ground. When my head almost grazed the ground, I got a good look at Saus. The rabbit whose eyes met with mine had a long pelt and fluttering, red, fruit-like irises.
[I am, a dragon, right?]
[Yes]
[My name is Vito. Since I was born, I’ve lived in this mountain, eating humans.]
[What you’re really eating is magical power though-]
[Magical power?… Can magic be used, here?]
Now that you mention it, the earlier village girl I ate was delicious because she had abundant magical power, I seem to remember thinking that.
[It can be used, however, the ones who can use it are mostly humans! This is because, only humans who are blessed by the spirits can use magic!]
[Blessed by the spirits? Is that like the spirit of earth and such?]
[Yes! Wind, or fire, or water, there are lots of them!]
So it’s fantasy, huh. Magic and things like that aren’t the stuff of dreams here. I’m getting excited!
[How do you use magic?]
[Yes, I don’t know that that. I mean, I’m only a rabbit. I don’t have any magical power, either.]
I see, just a rabbit. No magic power, huh. Okay, since he’s cute, I pardon him.
I’m feeling sad that only humans can use magic power, but don’t I eat magic power in order to live? Maybe I can use magic too!
I asked Saus about that. Saying that he didn’t know, suddenly he began to munch on grass stuffing his cheeks. What’s with this animal. he’s too cute! If I had hands! If I had humans hands, right this moment I would cuddle him to death!! Oh, how hateful!! Oh how I hate my dragon paws!
Feeling frustrated, I tried to touch my chin against Saus’s head, when a small yelp could be heard from beneath my chin. Oh no, I don’t know how much strength I should hold back.
[Heeeavy-.]
Sorry.
After living as a dragon for a while I have realized various things.
How surprised I was after watching my own reflection in the river. The shape of a pure white dragon swayed on the water’s surface. My irises were also pure-red like Saus, and I think they looked like large snake eyes. I don’t think they give off a bad feeling though. What I was the most surprised about was the food.
Apparently I need to eat humans, living on the magical power that resides within them.
What’s more, ordinary humans don’t possess large amount of magical power, and thus I need to eat three of them to fill my stomach. This needs to be repeated at the very least once every month. Saus brings me humans to eat, so I don’t have to worry about that, but the facial expressions and screams of the humans I assault makes it slightly awkward.
However, when I put them in my mouth my instincts as a dragon take over and I finish them without any issues. Clothes and all included. Back when I was a human the B-horror style grotesque scene would probably have made me feel unwell, making me vomit whereafter I’d probably have fainted.
I wonder if there’s a method where I can do without eating, but only sipping the blood isn’t enough, and I end up eating the human in two or three bites anyway. I must say that my thinking about how these persons probably had family and sweethearts while munching on them, is ridiculous. Well, I can’t help it, I also want to live. In order to live, the sacrifice of others is necessary. This is a perfect example of the food chain. One day I will die, becoming nutrition for the earth.
Besides my own food, I don’t needlessly kill anyone. Since I’m alone, I lick the blood that’s stuck around my mouth.
The human I ate this time had a reasonable amount of magical power, yet it left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s that, the feeling of eating a pudding after its expiration date has expired.
I’m just glad I didn’t get an upset stomach, though.
After I finished eating the human, I lovingly watched the close by Saus who was munching on grass. When he noticed me watching, he looked back.
[Finished-?]
[I’m finished. Let’s go to the summit of the mountain as promised.]
[Really!? Weee, the grass over there is reaally tasty-! Probably because of the closeness to the sun-!]
When bouncing around in happiness, he draws his paws close to his body. He’s soo cute.
In order to not crush him beneath me, I sprawled down on the ground, and Saus settled down near my cheek. My skin is covered by hairless scales, but I could feel the warmth of Saus body.
I’ve been living as a dragon in these mountains for half a year now, and while I’m amazed at my adaptability I don’t really think it’s anything strange. Sometimes I get the feeling that this is a dream and sometimes I remember my human memories fragmentarily, but they are no hindrance to my daily life as a dragon. Rather, I’d say the the memory storage is divided in a ratio of Dragon : Human = 8:2.
And what’s more reassuring than anything is Saus presence.
When looking at, he’s only a small rabbit, but to me in this world he’s my precious only friend. I’ve heard that there are other dragons, but in this mountain I’m the only one, and otherwise there are only bears and deer and such typical wildlife. From simply seeing me they run away as fast as they can. It’s making me slightly sad. Even though I don’t eat animals. When talking about startled hares, Saus is a rabbit, but he’s an exception.
Suddenly asking him [Am I a human], not thinking badly of me who has strange gaps of knowledge about this world, simply teaching me what he knows.
Recently he’s been worried about me, so he hasn’t even went back to his nest and simply slept together with me.
Such a kind rabbit.
Yup. As I thought, the view from the summit of the mountain is superb.
The Vizannu mountains where I live are the biggest mountains around here, and it’s a mountain where you can watch the entire surroundings from one place. The flatness and it being covered by trees are the mountains characteristics.
At the foot of the mountain there is a small village, and further away there is a bigger town. Crossing a small mountain and traveling slightly further from the town, is where an elegant castle can be seen. If I flew for one or two hours I’d reach it, but for the legs of humans it’d probably take weeks.
I once flew high and took a look at the shape of the land, and it was a single giant continent shaped like the letter C. In the center it widens to become thinner at the bottom half. The continent looks like half of a yin yang symbol, or almost like a fetus that has been laid in a circle. The Vizannu mountains reside in the very middle of this continent.
The terrain of the earth that I knew of did not have this shape. Neither did dragons exist there, and no matter how much I watch the sky I don’t see a single aircraft.
Sometimes I saw strange dragons that looked different from me flying past. All of them were mounted by humans who looked like they were part of an army, and it almost looked like they were going to a war.
Since I was curious of where they were going, I followed them while taking care not to be seen, but as expected they were going to a war. I always thought all dragons lived in the wild, but it seems like there are dragons who follow humans. When I asked Saus, it told me that those dragons are nearly all fire drakes. Some small dragons were also kept as pets, and I realized that the world was filled with things that I don’t know.
Now I’ll tell you the reasons why I decided that this is a different world from the one I lived in as a human. I pondered a lot, but this world and my previously lived world are completely different, and I can’t even with any certainty tell if the world I lived in as a human actually existed. My ego as a dragon has been established, and my recollections of humanity act more like a background. Even now I don’t even remember my own name, so I can’t be sure if these memories actually are real or not.
At least for now, I don’t need to know anything except how to live as a dragon.
While I was thinking this on one side, Saus was busy stuffing it’s cheeks with grass. I don’t know the taste of grass, but the grass here is according to Saus the rabbit comparable to how I view humans with a high amount of magical power. The comparison is weird but that’s the short of it.
As I laid sprawled out on the soft grass, I decided to take a nap.
Saus is, no matter how he looks, a glutton. If I leave him alone, then all the grass as far as I can see will be eaten. I wonder where he stores all that grass in that tiny body.
The sun’s warmth made me sleepy.
I slowly closed my eyelids.