(Chapter 3)

The rooftop

As the elevator door opened, Kobayashi turned towards to Erika

"I know Mizuchi-chan is a dragon. So do Kanna-chan and Ilulu. They're getting territorial."

"Mizuchi-chan," said Erika. "You're going to have to show them."

"Fine," Mizuchi reluctantly replied, rainbow-coloured runes already orbiting her.

"That's different," said Kobayashi. "These three generate magic circles when they cast spells."

When the runes disappeared, a three-headed dragon was in the middle of the rooftop common area. She was a deep, almost black, purple, with pale-blue scales along her underside, and the same again for her dorsal spines and the folds of her wings. Ice crystals formed around her heads as she breathed. From the tip of her (middle) head, to the tip of her tail, she was just over four feet long.

"KAAAWWAAAIII!" cried both Tohru and Ilulu simultaneously. The tiny dragon suddenly found herself sandwiched between two ample chests, their owners' hostilities overridden by mothering instincts.

Kanna, eyes dilated, turned to Erika. "She's so small."

"Well, Mizuchi-chan only turned ten years old last week," replied Erika.

"That's a little too accurate for someone to have adopted an abandoned dragon," observed Kobayashi. "Did you find an egg somewhere?"

"Neither," replied Erika. "I was the one holding her mother's hand, as she gave birth to Hiroshi-kun, and then Mizuchi-chan. Apparently, dragon genetic fragments are hidden in the junk-DNA of the human genome. Mizuchi-chan just happened to 'win' the DNA lottery." Probably because Freya is only half-human, she thought to herself.

As Erika was explaining this, Kanna noticed that what she initially thought were jewels, diagonally above and below Kuroko's eyes, were actually extra 'mini' eyes. "Kuroko-chan, why do you have six eyes?"

"Because I'm an Arachne," she replied.

"What's an Arachne?"

++MechaFaerie1337: See? Even dragons haven't heard of arachne. :P

++WebWeaver101: Get bent, Tinkerbell! She's just a kid.

"Kanna-chan, do you know what a centaur is?" asked Kuroko.

"That's the one that's part human, part horse, yes?" she replied.

"Yes. An arachne is similar, but replace the horse part with a giant spider."

"Ohhh! But why don't you have the spider part?"

Kuroko looked at Hikari. "Do you want to explain, or should I?"

Flashback (Kuroko's POV)-

The war had been going on for two years, and we were losing. Badly.

The last survivors of the United Nations Self Defence Force were barely holding the lines at Okinawa and Hokkaido, and the Americas were only just handling the invaders, with the alliance of Tejas, New Jotunheim, and Mexico, on the Atlantic coast, trying to push them out of the Albion Thirteen, and the salvaged weapons batteries from Grandmother's wrecked GDC frigate defending the Pacific.

Unfortunately, a Mindflayer managed to get into Harujuku, and opened a portal. Nightgaunts, Psychovores, Soul-stealers, and other 'things' were rampaging throughout the city. My squadron was tasked with evacuating as many civilians as possible to secure shelters. Yes, I was the eldest, but these creatures weren't going to just go "oh! You're just a child? Carry on." On the contrary. Many of these creatures feed on fear, making terrified children choice targets.

While I was rescuing some children from a partially destroyed school building, a six metre tall Something, with an octopus for a face, smashed the rest of the building on top of me. While I was shielding a young child with my remaining arm, and preparing for the inevitable, a portal opened a few metres in front of me, a figure in pitch-black armour came flying out of it at several hundred kilometres an hour. There was the distinct noise of a blade impacting flesh. I turned my head to see the biggest tank-saw I have ever seen, sticking into the creature.

A demonic voice rumbled from the vicinity of its tentacles

"No weapon forged by man can harm Zwynxtghm!"

An electronically-amplified voice came from the armour

"Were you hiding behind the door when the names with vowels were being handed out? I'm going to call you 'Dumb-ass Trev' simply because you were attacking civilians in front of me."

"Such insolence before my magnificence. Your death will be painful, and slow."

I then witnessed a magic circle form above the head of the creature, so dark, it appeared to swallow the surrounding light.

Almost immediately after, purple runes started orbiting the knight. The magic circle blinked out of existence. A hatch then opened in the front of what turned out to be robot armour. Straight out of Saturday morning anime, I thought. It was piloted by a red-haired fairy.

"As you can see, I'm not human."

For the first time ever, I witnessed terror in the eyes of an extra-dimensional invader.

"Coordinates are locked onto a singularity I passed on my previous jump. I don't need magic to go FTL. Do you? Have a nice trip."

She then switched on the tank-saw, and threw the impaled creature through a newly-formed portal.

Then she turned to me. The last thing I heard, as I was passing out from blood loss was

"Smegging hell! You look just like mother!"

Some time later, I awoke to find myself lying in a hospital bed. Doctors and ...mechanics?.. were looking at me. "Can you feel your arm?" one of them asked. "How about your legs?"

End Flashback

"Due to ...circumstances... I had to bring Kuroko and Midori back with me," said Hikari.

"Mama! Aunt Mizuchi! Anyone!" cried Mizuchi. "Get these clucky women off me, please!"

"I suppose we'd better go rescue the poor kid," said Kobayashi. "Tohru! Ilulu! Let go of Mizuchi-chan!"

Oborozuka Shopping District

Tohru was taking Kanna, Mizuchi and Hiroshi shopping. Everyone had agreed that they were too large a group to travel together. So, while Miss Kobayashi and Erika caught up properly, the older girls were going to go get fitted for their school uniforms, Tohru's group were going to get the school books, and ingredients for a proper welcoming party.

"KAAANNNNAAA-CHAAANNN!" cried out a familiar voice.

Kanna nearly fell over, as her best friend glomped onto her.

"Young miss," said the older Saikawa sister. "We are not a football player."

"But, I haven't seen Kanna for a whole week!" exclaimed Riko.

"Do you need assistance to get her off you?" asked Hiroshi.

"You'd need a crowbar to pry her out of that grip," commented Mizuchi.

"Excuse me, Tohru," asked Sannae. "Who are these two people?"

Tohru introduced everybody to each other.

Across the road, in front of Cafe Cozy

A tall, dark-haired woman, wearing a 'government issue' business suit and sunglasses was sitting at an outdoor table, drinking coffee. Opposite her was a very tall blonde woman, wearing a floral sun dress and sun hat, drinking something extremely colourful.

"So, that's Tohru," the dark-haired woman commented. "She definitely looks like a cosplay maid."

"Officer Kuboto mentioned that she was the pride of the local shopping district," said the blonde.

"The local fishmonger said she was married to a local office worker. Strangely, Tohru is listed as being the Head Chef at this Maid Cafe, even though she only works part time."

The dark-haired woman's phone started ringing.

"Hello. Pel-pel? What? We'll be there right away."

Inside Ouroborozuka Uniform Shop

"Welcome to my store, dear customers," greeted an old woman. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Good morning, ma'am," replied Hikari, handing over some official-looking documents. "We're here to get fitted for school uniforms. Aunt Astrid starts Middle-school this year. Kuroko, Aunt Ilulu, and I require Ouroborozuka High School uniforms. We were told we need to show these to you."

The shopkeeper took all four documents, and inspected them.

Looking at the four girls in front of her, she could see why they needed specialised uniforms made. At nearly six foot tall, 'Hikari' and 'Kuroko' would already be difficult to find uniforms that fit. Having size 12D hourglass figures would make the task almost impossible.

Even the Middle-school girl was a curvier than average. That must be why they were sent here, instead of the normal school shop.

She then looked towards Ilulu.

Wait, isn't she the part timer at Mrs Aida's shop, she thought.

"Illulu, How old are you?"

"Sixteen," Illulu replied. "I wanted to go to school last year, but the Principal wasn't allowed to make an exception for uniforms back then."

You poor girl, she thought. Shorter than the average middle-school girl, but more curves than her high school friends.

"Please charge the costs for the four of us to this account," Hikari said, handing over a credit card, and her GDC identification card.

++WebWeaver101: Hikari! What the fuck?

++IceQueen001: Yeah, Hikari! What the fuck?

++MechaFaerie1337: I know what I'm doing.

"Wow. I haven't seen one of these in years," said the shopkeeper. "I'm Corporal Yamada, retired, formerly of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Answer me this, Artificer Captain, how does a Sixteen year old get a Galactic Defence Command Officer's ID?"