"Souma-kun, do you have any family aside from your father?" Arato asked, while she and some of the 92nd Generation and even some of their teachers waiting for their dish to be cooked at Yukihira's Diner. The majority of them were already inside and waiting, but some of them decided to go for a walk while waiting for the dish to be finished. So while waiting, Arato decided to ask a few questions to Souma as a way to pass time.
"Family? Well, I still have grandparents left, but-" Souma answered, but he got cut off by the sound of the door being slid open, signaling a customer has come, despite a notice at the front door. "I'm sorry, but we're closed for today." He said, not noticing who's just come in.
"Ara? My Souma kicked me out?" Upon hearing the soprano and feminine voice, Souma turned his head towards the source. There, a girl in dark blue pants and bright red Chinese-styled clothing with the same shade of red for her hair stood near the entrance. She wears her hair in a high ponytail and slightly leaning against the door.
"Hey, kid. It's really has been a long time since I visited you."
"Great-grandma?!" He exclaimed in shock.
"Great-grandma?!" But she looks 20 at the most!" Is the collective thought of everyone in the diner when they hear the honorific Souma has used to address the redheaded girl.
"Souma-kun, is she really, you know, your great grandmother?" Megumi asked the question that have been in everybody's mind since they saw the tiny redhead.
"Yeah, on my father's side, why?"
"But-"
"What Megumi tried to say is, there's no way she is your great grandmother! I mean, she looks almost the same age as us!" Erina interrupted, a tone of disbelief in her voice.
"Ah, that. Wait here, I'll go get something." He then went somewhere around the back of the shop, while the others waiting around, still talking about the redhead. After a few minutes, he emerged from the back of the shop, carrying what seem to be a book.
"Here, look at this." He gives the book to the group. "This is my family's album." He added.
They skimmed through the album for quite a long time. "This has to be edited, right? Alice?" Takumi asked Erina's cousin.
"Yeah... This is real." The aforementioned cousin, Alice said her two cents.
"No way!"
"So, how did her age and appearance doesn't changed over the past decades? Is she immortal or what?" Alice asked Souma.
"Ah yeah. How did you know?" A shocked and stunned face. "What?" He asked once he see their reaction.
"Mermaid flesh? Does mermaid even exist in the first place?" Alice voiced her skepticism.
"Dunno about that, but dragon and phoenix did exist, so mermaid doesn't sound far-fetched either."
Cue the silence.
"WHAT!?"
"Ugh, you guys are too loud." Turning the album's page, he pointed to one of the pictures, with him, his great grandmother with one girl at her side and a little kid sitting on her shoulder. "Here, this is them. This girl is from the Dragon bloodline and the little kid sitting on my grandma's shoulder is a Lord of the Phoenix tribe. And if you guys want to, you know, meet them, you could ask my grandma later."
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but if they are really dragon and phoenix, how did your grandmother meet and befriend them?" Marui asked.
"Well, she told me that they're her rival and friends from when she still had a normal lifespan. And originally, they and my great-grandma are enemies at first."
"Enemies?"
"Yep. Both of them tried to kill her at first, you know?"
"Kill!?" Takumi said in a horrified tone.
"Anyway, she managed to defeat both them and even killed Saffron, name of the kid on her shoulder, though he revived later, one of the advantages being a phoenix I guess." He shrugged. "Then, many things happened, and she, the dragon princess, and the phoenix lord became a friend after that."
"But she doesn't look that strong," Marui said.
"Hahaha. True, she looked fragile, isn't she? But, do you guys ever know the reason why Mount Horai was destroyed?"
"Isn't that because of the earthquake? Or is it a landslide?" Ibusuki, who's silent for quite a long while, speaks.
"Well, I don't know if my great-grandma will be angry at me if I say this, but that is not the main reason Mount Horai collapsed." His eyes darted around the diner and the door. And then he continues, "Actually, the real reason is that Mount Horai is the place where my great-grandma and Dragon princess's first martial arts fight when they are still enemies."
"What."