Chapter 2 — It’s Like a Scene You’d See in a Pesticide Commercial

Garula Canyon was an area dominated by its namesake river, carving a meandering path of cliffs and valleys through the landscape. The reddish brown rock of the canyon had been cut through, revealing countless layers of geological strata. Perhaps due to this harsh environment, it was rarely visited by people. Until the development of the road between Hanabusa and the capital, it had been an often ignored territory. Even now, besides the train that ran through it, it was virtually unexplored.

There had once, however, been a tribe of people living in the region who had called the canyon home, and thanks to their efforts, a network of what could technically be called roads had been left behind. At a dead end on one of those roads, a single armored vehicle was parked. The large, many-wheeled truck was a rare sight.

"Not another dead end..." The girl sitting in the driver's seat, Tomochika Dannoura, breathed yet another sigh. She was wearing a new outfit that she had picked up in Hanabusa — a dress with open sides. Having bought a large number of clothes during their journey, she enjoyed a different fashion each day, as her mood dictated.

"Hey, why are we going to the capital anyway?"

The grumbling reply came from a boy sitting in the passenger seat, Yogiri Takatou. As always, he was wearing his school uniform, as if choosing new clothes every day was just too much work. The supplies in their truck included a number of sets of clothing for him as well, but he only ever changed his underwear and the shirt under his uniform jacket.

"You say that now?! Could you come up with these complaints before we leave, please?" Tomochika snapped back at him.

"I just think it might be best to reevaluate our situation. Getting through here isn't our only objective."

The cliffside road they had been following had come to an abrupt end. There seemed to be the remains of what was once a bridge, indicating they were on the right path, but that was little consolation.

"True, but Ryouta didn't seem to think it would be a problem, did he?"

Ryouta, the lord of Hanabusa, had told them that, thanks to roads that were built during the railway's construction, it should have been possible to drive to the capital.

"Now that the railway's been built, they don't actually use these roads anymore, though, so they probably don't know what condition they're really in."

The railroad that passed through the area had been constructed a long time before. It was hardly surprising that a previously functional road was no longer in good shape.

"Our objective is to get back to Japan, which means making contact with a Sage," Yogiri continued. "I thought it would be faster to work with the rest of the class, but don't you think a Sage will come to us eventually anyway?"

"Are you saying we should have just stayed and relaxed in the city?"

"I thought we might have been able to, but who knows. If they just attack us out of the blue, it'll be pretty hard to hold a conversation." And if Yogiri fought back, their opponents would always die. Waiting around to be attacked wasn't going to yield much in the way of results. "Besides, they don't care about the lives of the people in the cities at all. I don't particularly care either, but that bothers you, doesn't it?"

"Right..." Tomochika replied with an unpleasant expression, remembering the scene from Hanabusa.

"Anyway, I thought maybe we could talk to this Sage named Sion. She is the one who summoned us here, after all."

The two of them had been called to this strange world by a woman named Sion, who had forced their class into a trial to become powerful Sages. Becoming a Sage required clearing the missions that Sion had laid out for them, and the surviving candidates would eventually meet her again. If Yogiri and Tomochika could connect with their classmates and find the Sage, they could ask her how to return to their home world.

That was the extent of their plan for the moment, anyway. Of course, they hadn't bet everything on Sion — they just assumed it would be easier to talk to her than going to one of the other Sages. If Sion wouldn't speak with them, they would have to find another way.

I had a look ahead as you asked, and even if we cross this ravine, there will be another dead end shortly afterwards, Tomochika's guardian spirit Mokomoko said as she floated into view.

As a spirit, she could freely navigate the landscape regardless of obstacles. They had sent her ahead to scout out the land in front of them, but clearly the news wasn't good.

"It doesn't look like we'll make it to the capital at this rate — wait! I've got it! We know of one sure way to reach the capital, right?" Looking up at the nearby train tracks, Tomochika spoke as if she had struck a gold mine of an idea.

"Are you going to suggest that we drive along the rails? You know if a train comes, we'll be toast."

"But it doesn't look like the trains are running right now. And with Hanabusa in its current state, they probably won't resume service for a while."

"That's a good point. And if a train does happen to come, I can always kill it. I have no idea what would happen if I did, but the results probably wouldn't be great."

"Fine! We'll just go back and try to find another road, then!" Tomochika slowly turned the armored truck around. But as she began to accelerate, the vehicle ground to a stop with a loud thump. They had hit something.

"Hey, what?! I'm pretty sure there was nothing there a second ago..."

She couldn't see anything in the side mirrors. More importantly, given how narrow the road was, if there had been any obstacles earlier, they wouldn't have been able to reach the location they were currently in, so it must have just appeared.

Tomochika opened the door to peek outside. A split second later, she jumped back into the truck, hurriedly closing the door. "Th-There's something out there! Something wiggly! Like a tail!"

"That's weird," Yogiri said, opening his own door and looking around. An enormous face, somewhere between that of a bird and a reptile, stared back at him. "Oh, it's another dragon. This is the same type as the one that attacked the bus. They really do like cars, don't they?"

"I don't need to hear about any more weird fetishes! Can you just get rid of it?"

"I don't know. If this is its nest, it's kind of our fault for driving through it. Just waltzing in and killing it for no reason feels kind of mean."

The truck began to shake. The dragon had started ramming its body into it. Luckily, the vehicle was sturdy enough to take the blows, but they were near a steep cliff. If the assault continued for much longer, they would be thrown off into the ravine.

"This isn't the time for your bleeding heart act!"

"Fine, then." As requested, Yogiri killed the dragon. Of course, ending its life didn't actually get rid of the body, so in the end they were still stuck.

As Yogiri was considering what to do about that, a roar filled the canyon. In response to that roar, more dragons took to the sky one after another, flying straight towards the vehicle. They appeared to be the same species, their reddish brown skin matching the color of the rocks around them.

"Where the hell did all of these come from?!" cried Tomochika.

As they watched, the number of dragons continued to increase, gathering in the sky around the cliff. They began to open their mouths wide, each giant maw filling with flames. No doubt they would soon be breathing fire down onto the truck. The angry creatures were more than ready to fight.

"Seems like we're at a real disadvantage here. Oh well, it's not like we can reason with them." Yogiri unleashed his power again, and the dragons simply dropped out of the sky one by one, fire still burning in their mouths.

"Wow, it's like a scene from a pesticide commercial..."

Despite being more than twenty meters long from head to tail, the enormous reptiles had immediately lost all strength and plummeted to the earth. It was a rather impressive sight. The canyon soon returned to silence, as if nothing had happened at all.

"I really don't want to think about what's going to happen to the canyon now, with all of those bodies lying around," Tomochika sighed.

"More importantly, we're still stuck."

"I guess we'll have to do something about that one dragon behind us."

No problem at all, offered Mokomoko. Just use your weapon on it. Either cut it to pieces, or use it as a lever and push the carcass into the canyon.

The weapon that Tomochika had received from the Aggressor was currently masquerading as part of her outfit. It could freely change shape, so it could become a sharp blade or a strong metal beam as needed.

The pair disembarked from the truck. Glancing at the fallen dragon, it seemed like they could stick the weapon between the body and the cliff, have it expand, and send the creature toppling over the edge.

"Wait a second," said Tomochika. "Couldn't we make a bridge out of this?"

Beyond this point, the road has crumbled away. It wouldn't be possible to make it all the way to the capital regardless.

"Well, maybe there will be more places later on where we can use this — hold on, something else is coming!"

Although his sight wasn't nearly as good as hers, even Yogiri could see a wyvern flying through the sky towards them. But something about it was different from the others.

"Great, now we've got a Golden Thunder Dragon on our hands?" asked Tomochika.

The newly arrived monster was a sparkling gold in color. Clad in lightning, it had a powerful, divine air about it.