Chapter One: A Storm of Fire

The crater sloped upward in the remnants of the closed factory, smoke radiating off of the walls in fading wisps. The creatures slowly unwound themselves from their pile of limbs and wings and tails. One brandished a gun to get them moving faster, eyes agitated. His whole body twitched with the idea of getting out of open ground, but the only other one who would dare agree with him on anything was at the bottom of the pile like the self-sacrificing dipwad he was. The dragon wanted to scoff. He was a soldier and he wasn't that stupid.

"Dudes… it worked." The other dragon, green and red and with eyes that drooped like a student during every final week of school, let out a drawl of a laugh. "Explosions do make everything better, huh?"

Another creature smacked his head with a wing."Dracomon, shut up. You're going to get us caught."

Dracomon snorted smoke. "But it worked so we're gonna get caught any whichaways, man. Chillax."

"Why did we bring him again?" grumbled the creature at the bottom of the pile. "I still think we could have left him tied to two of the bars and let him find his own way."

Another snort, causing the dragon to exhale a puff of smoke. "Cause I got the sniffer, and I've got the goods."

A sigh. "Liollmon, just hit him. We can drag him the rest of the way."

Liollmon made to swipe but the dragon dodged, pouting at the rabbit currently perched on a nearby piece of metal. "Aw don't be like that, Bunnicula."

"What is that a reference for now?" muttered the creature, scratching at one of its oversized ears.

"Bunnicula, obviously." He huffed. "Geez, get your references man."

Liollmon adjusted his stance. "One moment. I'll get him this time."

The dragon yelped. "That smarts!"

"... He actually said that out loud."

"Come on, let's get moving." The last voice let out a whine of exhaustion. "We need to find a safe space before the humans spot us and I wanna sleep!"

No one could really argue with that, especially at the sound of a broken, mechanical wail, a sound they had never heard before.

They didn't know what that sound was, but when it started to echo, they bolted.


"Aw, damn it!" Watanabe Norio threw his controller onto the carpet. "Dead again. Damn you, senpai." He mussed up his black hair as he rolled on the carpet."I was so close to that combo!"

"Shoulda mashed the buttons faster, Nori-chan," the other male sang, spitting out strands of auburn hair. He was upside down on the couch, legs dangling over its back. "Dunno why you bother though, I'm the best at these games."

Norio let out a harrumph. "Yeah, now. Cause you and Kiri-nee get to play together all of the time. I'm still stuck with cram school." He grunted. "Could beat ya with mah eyes closed before!"

"The cram school is doing you some good, Nori-kun," hummed a voice from his tiny kitchen. "Thank you for leaving some rice in the cooker by the way. Makes this much easier."

Norio grinned, perking up before he could stop himself. "Sure!" He made himself sit up. "Kiri-nee, you wanna play? My hands hurt."

"You just wanna see me get my ass kicked," Sean muttered, moving himself to sit properly on the couch.

Kiri let out a giggle and slipped beside him. "You should never let a relationship dictate your role in life, Sean."

Sean huffed and cracked his knuckles, shaking his wrists. "Hardly how it works Kiri, you're just good at shooters."

"Is that your excuse now?"

Norio snickered, going to get another game from his room. Sean would probably break the screen with his controller if he didn't. Not that he wouldn't do the same thing. Kiri was merciless at this game.

Well, okay, she was merciless at all video games. Sean just had even less of an advantage at this one. He switched on the light to his mess of a room, scanning his shelves for something multiplayer. "Damn, I need new games... maybe Hana-chan's brother has got some..." Like she'd let him ask. Hana was a great chick, just worse than a rosebush. He never knew the girl not to scowl. Or maybe that was just because he kept poking her. Eh, it was fun. Still, she wouldn't even let him come over and lend her homework anymore! What was her deal? Her new family was cool!

He pulled a game from the shelf and toppled backwards from the recoil of three others falling on him. "Damn it! My bad…"

"You break something in there?" Sean shouted from the couch.

"Jus' my pride man, I'll be out there in a sec!" Norio rubbed his head, ignoring the sound of Sean's amused, but slightly derisive, cackling. Why was he friends with these guys again? Oh wait, silly question. Because they were fun. And so was he, the top man on his own stage! What more could a guy want?

Aside from world peace, obviously.

As he thought this, he scanned his room. There was something he was supposed to give to Kiri-nee before they left today… where did he put it? He had put a sticky note on it and everything. His fingers scanned the floor, because everything tended to fall there. Books loved it there the most when their spines broke. yes he could read, how dare you insinuate otherwise?

"Ya know," he said to the empty room. "This would be a lot better with a light." As he spoke, a light burst from beneath his pillow, brightening up the room and allowing Norio to spot what he was looking for. "Thank you spotlight," he muttered to himself. Then he paused. "Wa-ait a second." He dove for his pillow, yanking out a strange device. It was like a disc with a screen on it. It began to shrivel and morph in his palm, becoming a wristband.

"Is this a fitbit?" he asked himself as words scrawled across the much smaller screen.

"Dragon's Quest download complete."

That was a video game or something, right?

He shrugged and pocketed it. Norio figured he probably got it at a toy store or something and forgot about it. He did that sometimes. Though he never knew a tory to transform without a human moving it first. he'd just figure it out later.

Leaving his room, he returned to the living room and groaned. "Guys this is my apartment!"

Sean sat up and grinned. "well, we figured you were busy in there." At least Kiriko had the decency to look embarrassed, failing to rub the pink from her cheeks.

"Not doing anything inappropriate," Norio retorted, ignoring the curling nausea in his gut. He was too cool to be going after his best friend's girlfriend, especially not after how much they had helped him out.

Sean laughed and poked him in the ribs. Damn foreigner with his culture shock. "I knew it was too quiet over there."

Norio elbowed him back. "Oh shut up."

Kiriko let out a giggle. "Sorry, Nori-kun. We'll avoid it next time."

"Or you could ask Hana-chan on a date like a smart person," Sean deadpanned, picking up the controller and starting to play again.

Norio stared at him. "Bro, why would I do that?"

Sean let out a theatrical sigh. "Boys," he scoffed, looking exasperated.

"You are a boy!"


Dracomon decided in the span of a few minutes of flying, that human world air kind of sucked. It was as thick and heavy as the occasional city area, probably more so. and there were no data streams to sniff! What was the point of living here? Well, okay to be fair, humans did not sniff the data streams so maybe it wouldn't be important to them like it was to him. Though why wouldn't they?

This was why he left the thinking to Hawkmon and the others. It was boring, and made him hungry. What was the point of doing things that made you hungrier than you already were? He grumbled to himself and landed on a tree, climbing the rest of the way. He guessed it was a good thing nighttime in this place meant things were quiet like it did in their world. On the downside, that meant their explosion had been super loud both times. Whoops. Oh well, just time to roll with it.

His stomach rumbled and he hopped down, ignoring startled gasps and shouts. He wasn't sure why they were all fussing about him. He hadn't eaten much in years but they couldn't see his ribs so what was the big deal?

This was going to be a long visit to the human world, huh? Probably would first have to focus on getting the kid to stop screaming or something.

"Man," he said, loud enough for people to jump. "We broke out of jail for this?"

It almost didn't seem worth it.

Dracomon yawned wide enough to make the few remaining people shriek, and jumped into the air again, flying as fast as his small wings could let him. Behind him came that weird wailing noise again. Welp. That sounded stupid.

He banked right and let the wind carry him wherever it wanted to. Hopefully it was towards some food.


The resounding thump of Sean's head against the arm of the couch caused Norio to look up (which wasn't hard, this was math) from his homework. "Senpai did you tryin thinkin' again?"

"Oh I stopped doing that when I met you." Sean picked up his phone from the floor. "I got a text from Meli. She needs me to get the parents some coffee beans, her study session is running over."

Norio snorted with laughter. "Your parents are pretty bad without coffee, yeah? You gonna fly then?"

Sean stretched. "Suppose i gotta. You ain't been around my mom when she decks mugs into a wall for target practice. I mean, all of them were ugly but still."

"She could have donated them," Kiriko noted with a giggle. "Every time I hear something new about your family, it's always entertaining." She rolled off of the other side of the couch. "I should head back too. Ruka's parents get worried when I'm out too late." At the two boys' groans of exasperation, she laughed again. "they just care, that's all." She smiled at Sean. "Walk with me part of the way?"

"Do I look like a prince in shining armor to you?" he joked, but he was already getting up. "Sorry Nori. Wish I could help with that algorithm crap."

Norio waved him off, ignoring the pit of jealousy in his throat. "Eh, it's gettin' late. I'll bumrush it tomorrow."

Sean sniggered. "Don't man. I don't want to drag your crying carcass out of bed tomorrow."

Norio pouted all the way to the doorway, shouting protests and laughing. Okay, sure, he wasn't with the girl he liked, and yeah, they tended to kiss in his house because they forgot he lived there, but it wasn't all bad. They and their friends and family included him and his wherever and whenever. Who knew? Maybe Kiriko and Sean would drift like in all those sappy romance anime he hid behind his video games? He could hope! Well, no, he couldn't. That wasn't cool.

On the apartment balcony, the three of them caught a glimpse of sirens and distant smoke. "What, did someone decide tonight was a good night to set bars on fire?" Sean said to nobody in particular.

The other two snorted. "I don't think they'd send quite as many police out for that." Kiri said this while flicking the other boy's auburn locks.

He huffed. "Well, maybe someone's holding up a bank. I dunno."

"I don't know which of you has the bigger imagination," Kiriko deadpanned.

Norio waved his arms, pretending to be hurt. "Kiri-nee, don't compare me to that lumpy dude."

"I'll have you know this is muscle." Sean stretched as if to prove it. "I do exercises every day."

Kiri snorted in his ear. "We know." She tugged his arm. "Come on, let's let Nori-kun go inside." She winked at the other boy, and his face flamed. "We'll see you on Monday."

"Bye!" He leaned against the balcony, making sure they got down the stairs okay. He was a little paranoid all right?

As Kiri turned away, she suddenly paused, eyes going wide. "Nori-kun!"

Norio blinked and made to turn around… facing a somewhat large green dragon.

"I'm hungry," it drawled. "Got any food?"


A/N: SURPRISE. Bet you thought you'd never see this again! Well, it's back and still kicking! Admittedly it will be a slow go as I have to finish Ours and so many other things but this has been in my compuer being stubborn so I figured I'd just make myself finish this chapter. And I did! So please enjoy the continued adventures of Norio and friends!