Kanna Kamui. A dragon from another world. In human form, she looked about nine years old. In dragon form, a massive beast covered in white fur, capable of electrical attacks and able to recharge by absorbing lightning.
Her actual age was over fourteen thousand years, older than some Dragon Kings. But she was still a hatchling. Willful, mischievous, afraid of being alone, and always hungry. In her original story, she'd been exiled from her world for taking her pranks too far, eventually ending up in the human world.
And now this dragon was here, in the Dimensional Gap, living on this nameless floating landmass, apparently guarding a castle. Leo hadn't expected any of this.
"Why are you here?"
The question came out before he could stop it.
"Hmph!"
Kanna didn't answer. She just glared at him, trying her hardest to look fierce. As always, it came across as adorable rather than intimidating.
Leo sighed at the uncooperative hatchling.
If she were an adult, he could pull the "you're my servant now" card and pressure her into cooperating. But despite being fourteen thousand years old, she was fundamentally still a child. A child who'd been exiled for pranking too much. Reasoning with her was pointless. If she'd been reasonable, she wouldn't have opened with a breath attack aimed at vaporizing him.
She was still glaring, clearly sulking because he'd killed her.
Leo thought about it for a moment, then opened a magic circle and pulled something out of his personal storage space.
That space was where he kept everyday items: phone, spare clothes, and occasionally snacks.
What he produced now was a massive lollipop.
Kanna's gaze instantly locked onto it. Her eyes changed completely.
Her small nose twitched, catching the scent of sugar. Once she smelled the sweetness, she couldn't look away.
Leo's lips curled slightly.
"Want it?"
His voice was gentle, coaxing. Like a villain about to trick a child.
Kanna wanted to nod, but remembering that this man had just killed her, she swallowed hard and turned her head away.
"N-no!"
The voice. The attitude. Everything about it screamed the opposite of what she'd said.
So Leo said, very simply:
"Then I'll throw it away."
He tossed the lollipop aside, sending it sailing through the air.
In that instant, Kanna moved.
She lunged with lightning speed, her head shooting forward, and clamped her jaws around the lollipop mid-flight. Then she swallowed it. Whole. Wrapper and all.
She didn't bite. Didn't chew. Just swallowed it like water.
Silence.
The two of them stared at each other. Leo wore a knowing half-smile. Kanna's face was blank, but the tips of her ears had turned red.
"Feeling better?" Leo decided not to tease her further. "Now can you tell me why you're here?"
"...I'm not telling you." Kanna was softened but still stubborn. "You killed me. You're a bad person."
"Then you must be a bad dragon. You attacked first."
"You were trying to steal my treasure." Kanna said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Humans who try to steal a dragon's treasure deserve to die. My father told me that."
"First, I'm not human. Second, I wasn't trying to steal anything. At least not before I knew what was going on here." Leo paused, then glanced at the castle. "Wait. There's actually treasure in there?"
"What are you planning?" Kanna went on high alert immediately. "I knew it! You are trying to steal my treasure!"
"You're my dragon now. Your treasure is my treasure." Leo waved dismissively. "Just tell me what's in there."
Before Kanna could refuse, Leo produced another giant lollipop.
Kanna snatched it at lightning speed and swallowed it whole again.
She ate like she'd never tasted food before. Leo seriously doubted she could even taste the lollipop at that speed.
"So what's inside?" Leo asked again. "Tell me and there's more where that came from."
This time, Kanna was visibly tempted.
Leo pulled out a third lollipop. Watched her inhale it the same way.
Then, reluctantly, she answered.
"I've never been inside. I can't get in." Kanna muttered. "There's a barrier around the castle. Every time I try to fly in, it pushes me away. Attacking it doesn't work either. So I just stayed outside."
Leo stared at her.
"You've never even been inside, and you're calling it your treasure?"
"There's definitely treasure in there." Kanna was adamant. "I can't get in, but just being near the castle makes me feel really good. Even without recharging, my electricity and power keep growing on their own."
That was why she'd stayed. Without that, a dragon who hated being alone would never have endured the solitude of this place.
"Fine." Leo was still a little exasperated, but Kanna didn't seem to be lying. He nodded. "I'll go in and look for myself."
Kanna panicked instantly.
"You can't take my treasure!"
Leo rolled his eyes, ignored the possessive hatchling, spread his ten black devil wings, and flew toward the castle.
Kanna immediately shifted to dragon form and followed.
They reached the castle quickly and descended from above. Leo bypassed the front gate entirely, dropping straight into the inner courtyard from the air.
But Kanna, descending right behind him, slammed into a barrier that materialized out of nowhere. She couldn't get through. The white dragon circled frantically in the air, unable to enter.
"This barrier... it's specifically designed to block dragons?"
Leo noticed it had appeared only for Kanna, letting him pass freely.
"I want to come in too!" Kanna was desperate now, calling out to Leo for help. "Help me!"
Leo didn't refuse, but he set a condition.
"I'll help you, but you have to listen to me."
Kanna went quiet. She clearly didn't want to agree.
Leo already knew exactly how to handle this stubborn hatchling. He turned and walked deeper into the castle, acting like he was going to leave her behind.
"Wait!"
Predictably, Kanna caved immediately.
"I... I'll listen to you..."
The fight went out of her completely. She deflated like a balloon.
"Should've just said so from the start."
Leo smiled, victorious. Then he raised his hand toward the courtyard and fired a bolt of lightning at a derelict fountain.
The lightning struck a crystal orb sitting at the fountain's apex. Leo had spotted it the moment he'd entered the courtyard. That orb was the core of the barrier. Destroy it, and the barrier would collapse.
The crystal shattered. The barrier dissolved like a mirage.
Kanna's eyes lit up. Without hesitation, she dove inside, trying to fly past Leo and reach the castle's interior first.
"You sneaky little brat!"
Leo almost laughed from the sheer audacity. In one breath she'd sworn to listen, and in the next she was trying to ditch him.
His aura surged. He activated Zenith Tempest's Balance Breaker, his wings shifting to twelve.
He didn't use them to fly. Instead, he extended one hand toward Kanna and deployed a bubble.
The bubble materialized around Kanna's dragon form, trapping her inside.
"Huh?"
Kanna tried to break free, but the bubble pushed her back. She fired a breath attack at the wall of the bubble. The lightning that could level a mountain range struck the surface and shattered harmlessly, as if hitting an indestructible wall.
Kanna was dumbfounded.
Leo squeezed his outstretched hand. The bubble began shrinking.
Kanna's massive dragon body was compressed, forcing her to shrink along with it. She cried out in pain as the space squeezed tighter, until she had no choice but to cancel her dragon form and revert to the little girl.
Only then did the bubble stop shrinking. Kanna raised her tiny fists and began pounding on the bubble's membrane.
"Let me out!"
Her protests were met with cold indifference.
"This is you listening to me, is it?"
Faced with Leo's accusation, Kanna didn't show a shred of guilt.
"You never said I couldn't go in ahead of you."
The shamelessness, coming from that innocent face, was something else.
"Fine. Then you can come in like this."
Leo didn't spare her another glance. He walked into the castle's interior. The bubble carrying Kanna floated along behind him automatically.
"Let me out!"
Kanna's protests echoed through the darkness as both of them disappeared into the castle depths.
Leo's footsteps echoed through the silent corridors.
"This place is enormous."
The hallway stretched endlessly. The walls on either side were at least ten meters away from him, and the ceiling towered twenty to thirty meters above. It was built for something much larger than humans.
"Or maybe it was built for dragons."
That thought felt right. A corridor this wide and tall was excessive for people, but just right for a dragon in its true form.
"A dragon's castle."
Intrigued, Leo stopped walking and spread his twelve devil wings, taking flight down the corridor at speed.
The bubble carrying Kanna followed, controlled by Leo. Seeing that he truly wasn't going to let her out, Kanna hung her head, looking so miserable she was on the verge of tears.
Eventually, Leo did speak to her again, asking how she'd ended up here.
This time, Kanna didn't hide it.
"I was thrown out."
Her voice was small and sullen.
Just as Leo knew from her original story, Kanna had been a dragon living in another world, exiled for taking her pranks too far. But unlike her canon story, she hadn't been sent to the human world. She'd been dumped into the Dimensional Gap, the same way many factions disposed of things too dangerous to keep.
After being exiled here, Kanna had drifted through the void just like Leo had, surviving one close call after another, until one day she found this floating landmass.
She'd discovered the castle immediately, and more importantly, discovered that staying near it made her feel good. Even without recharging, her electricity and power grew steadily on their own.
So after failing to get past the barrier, she'd settled in front of the gate, claimed this place as her territory and the castle as her treasure, and made it her home.
With no other living thing around, Kanna spent most of her time sleeping.
She didn't even know how long she'd been here.
All she knew was that when she'd first arrived, she was nowhere near this strong. Now she'd reached Dragon King-class without even realizing it.
From that alone, Leo understood. This sleepy little dragon had been here for centuries at minimum.
Otherwise, she never would have grown to Dragon King level.