"Huh?"
T-together?
Was she serious?
Even Fuji-nee had stopped bathing with Shirou once he turned ten!
Aoko Aozaki, did she have even less common sense than Fuji-nee?
"Aoko, you go first. I'll get in later… It's still early."
The moment Shirou said that, Aoko rejected him outright.
"Nope~ Since we booked a room for two, we should obviously bathe together. Otherwise it'd be a waste, wouldn't it?"
A waste of what? His life?
"But… isn't that kind of inappropriate?"
"I don't mind at all. Actually, I've been looking forward to soaking in the hot spring with you since last night, Shirou."
"Or do you hate the idea of bathing with me?"
Shirou's cheeks warmed slightly.
"Ugh, that's not fair."
Aoko quickly leaned in with a mischievous grin.
"Ah, Shirou's embarrassed?"
"No, I'm not!"
He pushed her away a little roughly.
A faint, pleasant scent came from Aoko's hair and neck. So this was an active high school girl…
In the end, the shaken Shirou was led by Aoko to the edge of the bath.
Aoko let go of his wrist, and then, right in front of him, she actually began taking off her yukata.
"..."
The sight before him went beyond Shirou's understanding.
Did this woman really have no sense of shame at all?
Taking off her clothes in front of a boy. Just how much nerve did someone need to do that?
Was this the resolve of someone who inherited Magic?
Shirou turned his gaze toward the night view beyond the terrace.
But then.
"Shirou."
"Mm?"
"Look this way."
"Uh."
"No~~~ Shirou has to look properly."
Aoko walked up to him, took his face in her hands, and forced him to turn back.
When Shirou was made to face her, he found Aoko wearing an expression that was both shy and expectant.
"You're not allowed to look anywhere else."
The chestnut-haired girl said it softly. Shirou had no reply, so he could only nod.
"Yes…"
Aoko continued changing, and Shirou stared wide-eyed at her movements.
Her slender fingers undid the sash.
The yukata slipped lightly to the floor.
For an instant, Shirou's mind went blank at the sight before him.
But it was not quite what he had imagined.
"Too bad~!"
Aoko wore a teasing grin, and Shirou was left completely dumbfounded.
"Huh… Aoko, you're wearing a swimsuit underneath?"
"Yeah. Oh, but I didn't leave home wearing it. I changed into it earlier when I put on the yukata."
Aoko said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, then knelt on the tatami and folded the yukata.
She was now wearing a boldly styled, vividly patterned bikini, adding a sudden splash of color to the quiet Japanese-style room.
She was not undressed, but the outfit was still daring enough that Shirou found himself at a loss for where to look.
Aoko Aozaki's figure, usually hidden beneath her everyday clothes, was now presented with a confidence that made her feel different from usual, bright, youthful, and unexpectedly mature.
Aoko lowered her head to fold the yukata, a mischievous smile on her face.
"Were you hoping I wasn't wearing anything, Shirou? Or did you want me to get into the hot spring with you like that?"
"..."
Shirou did not answer.
The girl looked up in confusion and found him staring at her with a dazed expression.
"What's wrong?"
Aoko asked, puzzled. Was he that disappointed he had not seen what he expected?
"No."
"Then what is it?" Aoko blinked.
Shirou answered, "The swimsuit. It's beautiful."
Shirou had once thought a bikini was just a revealing outfit, but after seeing Aoko wear one, he realized that was not quite right.
It was impossible to say he had no stray thoughts at all, but more than that, he was struck by how lovely the sight before him was.
"Huh…"
This time, it was Aoko's turn to look dazed.
The faint blush on her face instantly deepened until even the tips of her ears had turned red.
"I-is that so… W-well, of course it is. That's obvious, isn't it~"
Aoko scratched her cheek and said shyly.
"......Um, thank you. I'm happy you said that."
After that, the two of them entered the bath together.
Aoko wore her bikini, while Shirou had a towel wrapped around his waist.
A faintly charged atmosphere lingered in the air.
Since she had not yet conquered Misaki's territory, Touko Aozaki did not know that her younger sister was away from the mansion today.
To the puppet master, tonight was merely an early greeting, a show of force. Unfortunately, the one waiting to receive her was not her younger sister, but the witch left behind at the mansion, whose mental state was anything but stable.
More than fifty puppets entered the mountain. They were the last of Touko Aozaki's savings, built up over several years.
As if they had forgotten they were creatures that walked upright on two legs, they all advanced through the forest on all fours.
Taken together, this puppet army might have been enough to buy all of Misaki City, with enough left over to purchase a fine piece of land in France.
But to Touko Aozaki, the enemy of the girls, they were nothing more than pieces meant to be thrown away.
And to the witch who sensed that her treasure, her mansion, was under threat.
They were nothing more than ants to be crushed at will.
When thick white mist rose from the mountain, and a human figure resembling a young girl appeared within it, the slaughter officially began.
The dense fog that crept in from some unknown place reflected a dark fairy tale.
The puppets sensed something abnormal.
They were inhuman "Mystery artifacts," and because of that, they understood even more deeply than living creatures just how terrifying the girl in the mist was.
And so, the puppets tried to flee.
Unfortunately, their master had already issued a near-suicidal order to charge. Even without that order, by then they could no longer move.
A huge fissure split open in the white mist.
From within those cracks, the mist stretched into fine threads. But as the fissures widened, those threads revealed their true form. They were not some viscous substance hidden in the fog, but strangely shaped white limbs.
There was some incomprehensible monster inside the mist.
Sharp white teeth and crimson claws.
It looked like a bird, and also like a beast. In the end, it seemed most likely to be some kind of enormous dragon.
The puppets, unable to escape, rushed one after another into the white mist, then vanished.
Crack, crack, scrape, clatter. Before long, the last puppet disappeared as well.
In the forest, along the mountain path, on the stairs, the sounds of foreign objects echoed everywhere. The puppets' screams clung like bloodstains that could never be wiped away.
The fifty-odd puppets were quickly, eerily, and utterly helplessly bitten apart, torn to pieces, and devoured by the unknown monster.
After the slaughter ended, the thick fog on the mountain did not disperse.
Still unsatisfied, still wanting more. Such meager things could never fill the appetite of a girl in adolescence.
Because there was no water source on the mountain, the strongest "Thames Troll: Giant of the Bridge" could not be used.
Faced with the puppet army sent by Touko Aozaki, she had no choice but to use "Wandersnatch" to meet the enemy.
That was the girl's mistake.
To fight something monstrous, she had awakened something even more monstrous. Alice Kuonji's already sunken mood sank even deeper under the influence of the monster in the fog.
The blood of Meinster was stirring.
Even in the middle of battle, she was still thinking about the two who had disappeared from the mansion.
"I wonder what Shirou and Aoko are doing right now. Have they already had dinner?"
"Dinner at the hot spring inn must be very lavish… and here I am, pitifully eating takeout soba alone at home."
"It seems there was lobster sashimi."
Her mother's voice came from far away.
"After dinner, did they go soak in the hot spring together?"
"I don't think that's likely… surely something as senseless, tasteless, and shameless as mixed bathing wouldn't happen, right?"
"The bikini Aoko bought this summer doesn't seem to be in her room anymore… I'm sure she planned to use it tonight."
Her mother whispered softly by the girl's ear.
"Ah… ahhhhhh… no… no no no no no no no… It's too unfair for only Aoko to be happy!"
The girl's thoughts gradually sank, deeper and deeper.
At that moment.
The thick fog noticed it. Tonight, the ones who had slipped into the mountain were not only an army of puppets, but also a wolf that had secretly left home against its master's wishes.
Monstrosity called to monstrosity. Beast called to beast.
When the full moon emerged from behind the clouds, an exceptionally clear and beautiful melody rang out.
It was a roar that stirred ancient memories.
Beneath the mist-veiled moonlight, the owner of that voice paced out from the darkness of the forest.
It was an overwhelmingly beautiful golden beast.
It was neither demon nor illusion, but a true divine thing. A life from the extinct Age of Gods, a Mystery with human wisdom, a repeatedly accumulated inheritance of Mystery, the miracle of the entire land made manifest once more. It was the true natural enemy of Magi, capable of shattering everything in a single blow.
The beast's name was Lugh.
In his homeland, that name meant "sun."
The Gold Wolf. Able to speak human language, it was a Magical Beast known as a werewolf.
Its origins were older even than vampires, the so-called kings of monsters widely known among humans. They were the "Forest People" of Northern Europe.
However, by werewolf standards, there was no such thing as golden fur. Silver was the highest bloodline.
A silver werewolf became the head of the pack, its status belonging to Phantasmal Beasts beyond Magical Beasts. A golden werewolf above even that could be called an existence beyond comparison with human intelligence.
In truth, it was not truly a werewolf at all, but "something" that possessed the form of a wolf.
When it was discovered by the werewolf clan, it had caused a great uproar.
As time passed and the ages changed, over the course of more than two thousand years after entering civilized society, the fertility of werewolves had continued to decline.
For a tribe to produce even one new life in ten years was already a joyous event worth celebrating.
As a cub, it had neither gray nor white fur. It had only the pure gold bestowed upon it by the god of the forest. It was not difficult to imagine why its appearance had brought new hope to the entire village.
But as time passed, the werewolves' attitude gradually shifted from joy to disappointment.
Ever since that little golden werewolf had been discovered as an incredible miracle, its appearance had never changed.
Not only that, it had not grown at all over the decades.
It did not age or die, and so it could not earn the werewolves' admiration. Nor could anyone find its mother anywhere in the village.
Even the werewolves could not understand its existence.
A century passed in the blink of an eye, and the village finally realized that Lugh was simply another kind of creature born in the form of a werewolf.
A Mystery born from nature. An elemental.
It was a miracle born at the end of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of years of life's activity. That Mystery most likely had a history of at least three thousand years.
In the modern era, where Mystery was fading away, the Golden Beast had no companions and no knowledge of life or death, and so it lived out its life in solitude.
Until one day, a Magus entered the village.
She gave the Golden Beast the name "Beowulf," then cut off her own long hair and formed a contract with him, though to the wolf, that contract was pitifully fragile.
"Come. Go and duel the strongest Mystery!"
That day, the Golden Beast was lured in by the honeyed words of a woman named Touko Aozaki, and it had followed her ever since.
But now, it was almost at the limit of its patience.
After waiting in the deserted old school building for an entire year, the wolf finally could not endure any longer. Tonight, it secretly slipped out without its master knowing.
And then.
It saw a scene it could not understand, a creature it could not understand.
What exactly was that "girl" hidden within the thick fog?
The Golden Beast excitedly licked its lips.
Was that the "newest Magician" Touko had spoken of?
Until now, the Gold Wolf had followed Touko Aozaki and fought many powerful Mysteries.
The Mystic Eye Collection Train [Rail Zeppelin], which ran through the forests of Northern Europe.
The massive ancient species [Mur Krake], which still survived in the North Sea.
The sea of no return [Bermuda], spreading in a triangle and leading to another world.
The Magi hiding throughout Western Europe, calling themselves the [Elder Title].
The Golden Beast had defeated all those arrogant opponents with absolute power, and had yet to suffer a single loss.
"Your opponent, the reason you take the stage, is to deal with that [Magic]."
Touko Aozaki had reminded it of this more than once.
It sensed that the "thing" now before its eyes was stronger than any Mystery it had ever encountered.
Even if it was not Magic, it was something infinitely close to Magic.
The Golden Beast gazed at the thick fog that covered everything before him and spoke in a boyish voice.
"Hey, I get the feeling… you're pretty strong, big sister."
Alice Kuonji [Yumina] revealed a pitch-black smile within the fog.
"Thank you. You, on the other hand, are absurdly weak."